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BRONZE SHIELD— LATE CELTIC WORK. FOUND IN THE THAMES 

AT BATTERSEA. 

{From the original in the British Museum.) 



|,!h |>t°t)> of the jjjntiims ^ . ^ w ^ 



THE 



Story of Early Britain 



BY 

ALFRED J. CHURCH, M.A. 

AUTHOR OF " STORIES FROM HOMER," " CARTHAGE," " THE COUNT OF THE SAXON 
SHORE," "THE THKEE GREEK CHILDREN," " TO THE LIONS," ETC., ETC. 




NEW YORK 

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Copyright 

By G. V. Putnam's Sons 

1SS9 

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 

By T. Fisher Unvvin 



Press of 

G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York 



PREFACE. 



I DESIRE to make a most grateful acknowledgment 
of the assistance which I have received in writing this 
book from the " Norman Conquest " of Professor 
Freeman and from Mr. J. R. Green's " Short History 
of England " and " The Making of England." 
From time to time in the course of these pages 
special references are made to these works ; but these 
references express but a small part of my obligations 
to them. 

I have also consulted with great advantage to 
myself the " History of England under the Anglo- 
Saxon Kings " of Dr. Lappenburg, and Sharon 
Turner's "History of the Anglo-Saxons" ; the " Dic- 
tionary of English History," edited by Messrs. Low 
and Pulling (Cassell and Co.) ; the " Dictionary of 
National Biography"; Dr. Collingwood Bruce's 
" Roman Wall " ; and several of the volumes included 
in the Rolls Series. 

For one or two incidents in the story there is, as 
far as I am aware, no other authority than the 
Pseudo-Ingulphus. The Charters given in the 
"Description of Croyland Abbey" are unquestion- 



Vlli PREFACE. 

ably forgeries ; but the narrative, which embodies 
genuine records and traditions, need not therefore be 
wholly discredited. 

I do not know whether it is necessary to vindicate 
the propriety of my title. This island may have 
ceased to be properly called " Britain " after the 
middle of the fifth century ; but it certainly could 
not be called " England " before that time. To 
the writers and readers of Latin it was always 
" Britannia," and it is still formally known as 
" Britain " to the rest of the world 

A. J. CHURCH. 
Barnet, 

August, 1889. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface vii 



Britain before the Romans .... i-io 

Iberians and Belgian Celts, 3 — Caesar's Account of Britain, 5 
— The Druids, 7 — Laws of the Druids, 9. 

II. 

C/esar in Britain {First Expedition) . . 12-21 

Defeat of the Britons, 17 — Stratagem of the Britons, 19 — 
Caesar sets sail for Gaul, 21. 

III. 

Caesar in Britain [Second Expedition) . . 22-30 

The Second Landing, 23 — British Valour, 25 — The " Town " 
of Caswallon, 27 — Hostages and Yearly Tribute, 29. 

IV. 

Britain and the Successors of Cesar . 31-38 

Caligula's Whims, 33 — Caractacus, 35 — Claudius, 37. 

V. 

Caractacus . . . # . . . . 39-47 

Oration on the Battle-field, 41 — Caradoc in Rome, 43 — Cara- 
doc pardoned by Claudius, 45 — Death of Ostorius, 47. 



CONTENTS. 
VI. 



VAGE 



BOADICEA 48-57 

Subjugation of Mona, 49— Capture of Camalodunum, 51— 
Movements of Suetonius, 53 — The Britons defeated, 55— 
State of Britain in a.d. 71, 57. 

VII. 
Agricola in Command ..... 58-65 

The Ordovices, 59— Ireland first mentioned in History, 63— 
Recall of Agricola, 65. 

VIII. 
The Roman Walls 66-78 

Southern Britain, 67— Construction of the Wall, 69— Military 
Roads, 73 — Severus Visits Britain, TJ. 

IX. 
The Tyrants c 79~9 X 

Fresh Expedition to Britain, 83— A Blank in History, 85— 
Defeat and Death of Maximus, 87 — Influence of the Romans 
on Britain, 89 — Bignor and Chedworth, 91. 

X. 

The English Conquest 92-1 11 

The Legend of Vorti^ern, 93 — Hengist and Horsa, 95 — The 
Wood called " Andredsweald," 97 — The West Saxons in 
Britain, 99 — The Angles, 101 — The Kingdom of Xorthumbria, 
103 — The Kingdom of Mercia, 105 — The Boundary of Wales, 
107 — The King's Scaur, 109 — The Story of the Cave, in 

XI 

The First Four Bretwaldas (Elle, Ceawltn, 

Ethelbert, Redwald) - . .112-119 

Bretwalda, Britannia, and Bryten, 1 1 3— Ceawlin, of Wessex, 
115 — Redwald, King of Anglia, 117 — Edwin, the Fifth Bret- 
walda, 119. 



^ 



CONTENTS. XI 

XII. 

PAGE 

The Conversion of England . . . 1 20-1 31 

" De Ira Eruti," 121 — Augustine looks to British Churches, 
123 — The Vision of Edwin, 125 — Relapse into Paganism, 127 
— The Spread of Christianity, 129 — Wilfrid baptizes the 
Southern Saxons, 131. 

XIII. 
The Northumbrian Bretwaldas . . . 132-139 

Peaceful Britain, 133 — Oswald kneels to the Cross, 135 — 
Defeat of Penda, 137 — The History of Northumbria tnds, 
139- 

XIV. 

The Supremacy of Mercia .... 140-150 

Ethelred and Ceolred, 141— Edilhun the West Saxon, 143— 
Offa's Eminence, 145 — The Fate of Edelfrida, 149. 

XV. 

Caedmon, Bede, and Cuthbert . . . 1 51-166 

Caedmon's Vision, 153— Poetry of Caedmon, 155— Bede's Life, 
157— The Story of Bede's Death, 159— The Works of Bede, 
161— Cuthbert's Early History, 163— The Abbot of Lindis- 
farne, 165. 

XVI. 
The English People . 167-177 

The Slave, the Thane, the Alderman, 171— Social Matters, 
173— The Food of the People, 175— Hunting, Hawks, and 
Harpers, 177. 

XVII. 
Wessex and Egbert 178-184 

Story of Ina's Abdication, 179— King Egbert's Conquests, 183 



xJi CONTENTS. 

XVIII. 

PAGE 

The Successors of Egbert, and the Danes 185-198 

The Pagans waste Sceapige, 187— Alderman Ealcher, 189— 
The Lindsey Men defeat the Danes, 191— The Story of King 
Edmund, 193— Battle of Ashdune, 195— Ethelred succeeds 
Ethelbert, 197. 

XIX. 

Alfred, the Man of War .... 199-214 

Alfred as a Scholar, 201— The Northmen conquer North- 
umbria, 203— The Story of the Cakes, 205— Pirates beaten at 
at Sea, 207 — Battle of Farnham, 209 — The Danes chased 
through England, 211— Sea Fight, 213. 

XX. 

Alfred, the Man of Peace .... 215-224 

Alfred's administration of justice, 217 — Education, Letters, 
and Learning, 219 — Works attributed to Alfred, 221. 

XXI. 

Edward the Elder, and Athelstan . . 225-238 

London and Oxford, 227 — Edward's Statesmanship, 229 — 
William of Malmesbury, 231 — The Story of Anlaf, 233 — Battle 
of Brunanburgh, 235 — Athelstan's Reforms, 237. 

XXII. 
Edmund I. and Edred ..... 239-244 

"He harried all Cumbria," 241 — Edred Emperor of all 
Britain, 243. 

XXIII. 

DUNSTAN 245-256 

Coronation of Edwy, 249— Edgar and his Peaceful Reign, 251 
—The English Fleet, 253— Increase of Domestic Trade, 255. 



CONTENTS. Xlii 

XXIV. 

PAGE 

Edward (the Martyr) and Ethelred the 

Unready 257-266 

Death of Dunstan, 261 — Battle of Maldon, 263. 

XXV. 

Ethelred and Sweyn ..... 267-275 

Ravage of Cumberland and Man, 269 — St. Brice's Day, 273 
— Gunhild's Prophecy, 275. 

XXVI. 
The Vengeance for St. Brice's Day . . 276-294 

Norwich and Thetford burnt, 277 — Buying off the Pagans, 
279 — Hampshire and Berkshire ravaged, 281 — Demoralized 
state of the Country, 283 — Forty-eight Thousand Pounds 
Ransom, 285 — Sweyn virtually King of England, 287 — 
Canute ravages the West Country, 289 — A Succession of 
Fierce Battles, 291 — The Battle of Aslingdon, 293. 

XXVII. 
Canute . 295-310 

Danegelt of ,£82,500, 297 — Canute's Journey to Rome, 299 — 
Organization of the House Carles, 301 — Canute favours the 
Church, 303 — Ely, 305 — Death of Canute, 307 — Anecdotes of 
Cnut, 309. 

XXVIII. 

The Sons of Canute ..... 31 1-3 19 

Claimants to the Throne, 313 — Hardicanute invades England, 
315 — The English taxed, 317 — End of Canute's Dynasty, 319. 

XXIX. 

Edward the Confessor .... 320-330 

Edward crowned King, 321 — Mzgnus claims the Throne, 323 
— Sweyn's Crime, 325 — Banishment of Earl Godwin, 329. 



Xiv CONTENTS. 

XXX. 

PAGE 

The Supremacy of Harold .... 33 l S43 

Death of Godwin, 335— The Welsh burn Hereford, 337 — 
Harold falls into William's hands, 341 — Banishment of 
Tostig, 343. 

XXXI. 

William of Normandy 344~35° 

The Norman Succession, 345 — William defeats the Rebel 
Normans, 347 — Matilda of Flanders, 349. 

XXXII. 

The Accession of Harold and the Campaign 

in the North. 35!-36o 

Prophecy of Edward the Confessor, 353 — Harold is crowned 
King, 355— Battle of Fulford, 357— Slaughter of the North- 
men, 359. 

XXXIII. 

The Last Struggle 361-375 

The Pope, William's Ally, 363 — Embarkment of the Normans, 
365 — William on English Soil, 367 — Harold raises Levies in 
London, 369 — Harold's Position at Senlac, 371 — William's 
Strategy, 373— Finis, 375. 



Index 



377 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 



BRONZE SHIELD, LATE CELTIC WORK, FOUND IN 
THE THAMES AT BATTERSEA. FROM THE 

ORIGINAL IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, Frontispiece 

NEOLITHIC SPEAR-HEAD, OR CELT. FOUND NEAR 
CHELMSFORD, ESSEX. FRONT AND SIDE VIEWS 
TAKEN, BY PERMISSION, FROM " TRANSACTIONS 
OF THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB " . . -4 

SHIELD OF THE BRONZE AGE. FOUND IN A TUR- 
BARY CALLED RHYD-Y-GORSE, ABERYSTWITH. 
FROM THE ORIGINAL IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, 6 

VIEW OF STONEHENGE (RESTORATION) ... 8 

STONEHENGE — PRESENT STATE. FROM A PHOTO- 
GRAPH BY MESSRS. POULTON . . . .II 

BRONZE HELMET. FROM THE ORIGINAL IN THE 

BRITISH MUSEUM ...... 15 

PLAN OF CAMP AT AMBRESBURY BANKS, EPPING 
FOREST (SUPPOSED BRITISH TOWN). TAKEN 
BY PERMISSION FROM " TRANSACTIONS OF THE 
ESSEX FIELD CLUB " ..... 28 

COIN OF CLAUDIUS. (THE FIRST OCCASION ON WHICH 
ALLUSION IS MADE TO BRITAIN ON THE COIN- 
AGE OF ROME.) BY PERMISSION OF THE REV. 
J. COLLINGWOOD BRUCE 37 

XV 



XVI 



I L LUSTRA T10NS. 



TRAJAN S COLUMN. FROM A CAST IN THE SOUTH 

KENSINGTON MUSEUM ,44 

ROMAN GATES OF CHESTER 57 

COIN OF VESPASIAN. BY PERMISSION OF THE REV. 

J. COLLINGWOOD BRUCE ..... 58 

SUPPOSED ROMAN BATHS AT SILCHESTER. FROM A 

PHOTOGRAPH BY MISS MONRO, OF STRAT- 

FIELDSAYE RECTORY ..... 6l 

INSCRIPTION FOUND AT CASTLE CARY ... 65 

COIN OF HADRIAN. BY PERMISSION OF THE REV. J. 

COLLINGWOOD BRUCE 67 

THE ROMAN WALL AT BRUNTON. FROM THE REV. 

J. COLLINGWOOD BRUCE's " THE ROMAN WALL," 68 

COIN OF HADRIAN. BY PERMISSION OF THE REV. 

J. COLLINGWOOD BRUCE ..... 69 

REMAINS OF ROMAN CAMP AT SILCHESTER. FROM 

A PHOTOGRAPH BY S. V. WHITE, OF READING . 7 I 

ROMAN MILITARY ALTAR. BY PERMISSION OF THE 

REV. J. COLLINGWOOD BRUCE .... 75 

COIN OF ANTONINUS PIUS. BY PERMISSION OF THE 

REV. J. COLLINGWOOD BRUCE .... 77 

ROMAN VASE OF DARK BROWN CAISTOR WARE. 

FROM THE ORIGINAL IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, 8l 

COIN OF CARAUSIUS ...... S3 

ROMAN TESSELATED PAVEMENT. FROM THE ORIG- 
INAL IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM 90 

ROMAN RUINS, LINCOLN 9 1 

MAP OF ROMAN BRITAIN, A.D. 577 .... 106 
FLINT KNIVES. FROM " TRANSACTIONS OF THE ESSEX 

FIELD CLUB " . . . . . . . IIO 

STATUE OF A RIVER GOD (ROMAN), PROBABLY THE 

NORTH TYNE. BY PERMISSION OF THE REV. J. 

COLLINGWOOD BRUCE . . . . .Ill 



ILL US TRA TIONS. X v 1 1 



ANGLO-SAXON POTTERY. FOUND IN NORFOLK, KENT, 
AND CAMBRIDGE. FROM THE ORIGINALS IN 
THE BRITISH MUSEUM . . . . . Il8 

PAGE OF GOSPELS. FROM THE ORIGINAL MS. . . 130 

CHAPEL AT BRADFORD-ON-AVON. EARLIEST SPECI- 
MEN OF SAXON BUILDING EXTANT . . . 147 

SAXON CHURCH AND REMAINS OF MONASTERY, JAR- 
ROW 156 

ruins of lindisfarne ...... 162 

st. cuthbert's cross 165 

anglo-saxon calendar — ploughing. from the 

original ms. ....... 169 

anglo-saxon drinking horn. from the original 

in the british museum . . . . -174 

charlemagne. from the painting by durer . l8l 
croyland abbey ....... 192 

map of britain, a. d. 827 ..... 196 

anglo-saxon jewels. from otto henne am 

rhyn's " cultur geschichte des deutschen 

volkes " 2io 

anglo-saxon calendar — reaping. from the 

ORIGINAL MS. ....... 2l6 

JEWELS OF ALFRED THE GREAT. FROM OTTO 
HENNE AM RHYN's " CULTUR GESCHICHTE DES 

DEUTSCHEN VOLKES " ..... 223 

INSTALLATION OF A SAXON KING .... 230 

ANGLO-SAXON CUP. FOUND AT HALTON, LANCA- 
SHIRE 242 

DUNSTAN. FROM THE ORIGINAL MS. . . 247 

EDGAR. FROM THE ORIGINAL MS 254 

CORFE CASTLE ; THE KING'S TOWER ; SAXON WORK, 259 

VIKING SHIP ........ 265 

SAXON PENNIES ; FOURTEEN SPECIMENS OF THE 

COINAGE OF VARIOUS KINGS .... 271 



X V 1 U ILL US TRA T10NS. 

PAGE 

DANISH WAR VESSEL ...... 274 

OLD LONDON BRIDGE (EARLIEST KNOWN REPRESEN- 
TATION) 291 

ELY CATHEDRAL 304 

DURHAM CATHEDRAL 316 

ANGLO-SAXON DRINKING GLASS. FOUND AT ASH- 
FORD, KENT. FROM THE ORIGINAL IN THE 

BRITISH MUSEUM 327 

PEVENSEY CASTLE. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MESSRS. 

POULTON ........ Ty^ 

WILLIAM OF NORMANDY. FROM THE BAYEAUX 

TAPESTRY ....... 339 

SEAL OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. FROM THE 

ORIGINAL IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM . . • 35 2 

HAWKING. FROM THE BAYEAUX TAPESTRY . . 362 

SHIPBUILDING. FROM THE BAYEAUX TAPESTRY . 36 [ 
SHIPS OF WAR. FROM THE BAYEAUX TAPESTRY . 368 
FOUNDATION OF THE CHOIR OF BATTLE ABBEY AND 

SITE OF THE HIGH ALTAR . 375 



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I. 

BRITAIN BEFORE THE ROMANS. 

Sometime in the fourth century B.C. Pytheas, a 
native of Massilia (Marseilles) visited the island of 
Britain. 1 He travelled over a considerable part of it, 
and found that it consisted, for the most part, of forest 
or marsh. But there were open spaces in the woods 
in which sheep and cattle were kept, and there was a 
strip of land along the coast, or, at least, part of the 
coast, in which the traveller saw wheat growing. 
" This wheat," the traveller says, " the natives 
threshed, not on open floors, but in barns, because 
they had so little sunshine and so much rain." As he 
went further north he found that corn could not be 
grown. The natives made intoxicating drinks, he 
tells us, out of corn and honey. 

The island was inhabited, probably at this time, 

1 What is here said of Pytheas and his account of his travels must be 
taken with a certain reserve. His work has been lost, and all that we 
know of it is derived from quotations made from it by writers who did 
not attach much credit to it. But on more than one point where they 
criticized him, we know that he was right and they were wrong. Sir 
E. H. Bunbury (" History of Ancient Geography," i. 590 seq.) discusses 
the question fully, and is inclined to regard Pytheas as, in the main, a 
trustworthy writer. 



2 BRITAIN BEFORE THE ROMANS. 

and certainly afterwards when we reach the historical 
period, by two races of men. Tacitus, writing about 
the end of the first century of our era, says that the 
physical character of the inhabitants of Britain differs 
much. One part of them — he speaks of these under 
the name of Silures — had dark complexions, and, for 
the most part, curly hair. These he identified with 
the Iberians, or inhabitants of Spain. The other 
part, he says, resembled the Gauls. They had red 
hair, and were tall of stature. 

Csesar, of whom we shall hear more in the following 
chapters, writing about a century and a half before 
Tacitus, gives testimony to much the same effect — 
that the interior of Britain was inhabited by a race 
which considered itself to be indigenous, the sea-coast 
by another people which, in search of adventure or 
booty, had crossed over from Belgic Gaul. This 
people, he tells us, still retained the names by which 
its various tribes were known on the mainland. 

So far we may consider ourselves to be on firm 
ground. When we attempt to advance further we 
find ourselves at a loss. Who were these Iberians and 
Gauls ? 

Some would identify the Iberians with the race still 
found in the extreme north of Europe, and known by 
the names of Lapps and Finns. This theory may, 
with little or no hesitation, be set aside. It is more 
reasonable to see their kindred in the Bretons, oc- 
cupying the extreme north-west of France, and the 
Basques of Northern Spain, two populations which 
still represent the Aquitani, the third of three races 
into which Csesar divides the inhabitants of ancient 



IBERIANS AND BELGIAN CELTS. 3 

Gaul. 1 The Gauls of Britain, on the other hand, are 
identified beyond all doubt with the Gauls of the 
Continent, and with the Belgic stock of this people. 

It is a well-known fact that in the ancient British 
burial-places — burial-places dating from before the 
time of the Roman invasion — two very distinct types 
of skull are found, one being broad and the other 
long. 2 The same observation has been made of 
remains of the same date in France. It has been 
further inferred from the character of the weapons 
and articles of domestic use found in these graves, 
that the long-headed men were the ruder race. And 
it has been suggested that the short-headed men, 
with their superior weapons, drove out the earlier 
occupants, this dispossession being the movement 
spoken of by Caesar when he says that the Belgian 
Gauls crossed over from the mainland and occupied 
the maritime parts of the island. There is a tempting 
neatness in the hypothesis that the long-headed 
Britons were Iberians, the short-headed Belgian Celts. 
But facts do not exactly harmonize with this theory. 
As Professor Huxley remarks, " the extremes of long- 
and short-headedness are to be met with among the 
fair 3 inhabitants of Germany and of Scandinavia at 
the present day — the South-western Germans and 
the Swiss being markedly broad-headed, while the 
Scandinavians are as predominantly long-headed." 
Happily the subject may be left with this statement. 

1 The three are Belgians, Celts, and Aquitani. 

2 The two types are known by the names of Brachycephalic and 
Dolichocephalic. 

3 According to the theory all the fair, i.e., non-Iberian people, ought 
to be short-headed. 



$~ 




NEOLITHIC SPEAR-HEAD OR CELT. 

Found near Chelmsford, Essex. (Front and Side View.) 
(From " Transactions of the Essex Field Club.") 



CsESARS ACCOUNT OF BRITAIN, 5 

It does not fall within the province of one who writes 
the story of a country to deal with the prehistoric. 

We may pass on to other information that Caesar 
has to give us about the inhabitants of Britain. After 
giving his view of their origin, he goes on, " The 
population is numerous beyond all counting, and very 
numerous also the houses. These closely resemble 
the houses of the Gauls. They have great numbers 
of cattle. They use copper or copper coin or bars of 
iron, carefully made to a certain weight, as money. 
Tin is found in the inland parts ; iron near the coast, 
but the quantity of this is but small. They have 
timber of all the kinds found in Gaul except the fir 
and the beech. They hold it unlawful to eat hare, 
chicken, or goose. Still they rear these animals for 
the sake of amusement ... Of all the Britons those 
that inhabit Kent are by far the most civilized (Kent 
is a wholly maritime region). These, indeed, differ 
but little from the Gauls in habits of life. Many of 
the inland Britons do not grow corn, but live on milk 
and flesh, and are clothed in skins. All the Britons 
stain their persons with a dye that produces a blue 
colour. This gives them a more terrible aspect in 
battle. They wear their hair long, shaving all the body 
except the head and upper lip. Ten or twelve men 
have their wives in common ; brothers very commonly 
with brothers, and parents with children. The off- 
spring of each wife is reckoned to belong to the 
husband who first married her." 

The iron found " near the sea-coast " probably came 
from the iron fields of Sussex, which were worked 
down to the end of the seventeenth century, when 




SHIELD OF THE BRONZE AGE. 

Found in a turbary called Rhyd-y-gorse, Aberystwith. 

{From the original in the British Museum.) 



THE DRUIDS. J 

they ceased to be profitable, owing to the greater 
facilities for smelting afforded by the coal-fields of 
the midland and northern counties. The tin had long 
been worked in Cornwall, and exported thence to the 
Continent. The Cassiterides, or Tin Islands, is pro- 
bably a name given by people unacquainted with the 
true geography of Britain to this region. Tin was 
exported from it as early as the fifth century B.C., for 
Herodotus (48.4.-407) speaks of the " Cassiterides from 
which tin comes to us," though he disclaims all know- 
ledge of them. 

That the Britons were governed by kings, one or 
other of whom, from time to time, acquired more or 
less authority over the others, we may learn from 
Caesar. The same writer tells that they had a power- 
ful priesthood, which bore the name of the Druids. 
His account of this class is as follows : — 

" They are concerned with religious matters, per- 
form sacrifices offered by the State and by private 
individuals, and interpret omens. Many of the 
youth resort to them for education, and they are 
held in high honour by the Gauls. They have the 
decision in nearly all the disputes that arise between 
States and individuals ; if any crime has been com- 
mitted, if any person has been killed, if there is any 
dispute about an inheritance or a boundary, it is the 
Druids who give judgment ; it is they who settle the 
rewards and punishments. Any private person or 
any tribe refusing to abide by their decision is ex- 
cluded from the sacrifice. This is the heaviest 
punishment that can be inflicted ; for those so ex- 
cluded are reckoned to belong to the godless and 




«r. 



LAWS OF THE DRUIDS. g 

wicked. All persons leave their company, avoid their 
presence and speech, lest they should be involved in 
some of the ill-consequences of their situation. They 
can get no redress for injury, and they are ineligible 
to any post of honour. The Druids have a president, 
who exercises supreme authority among them. On 
his death the next highest to him in rank succeeds. 
If there are several who are equal, one is chosen by a 
general vote. Sometimes there is a conflict about the 
succession. . . . The system of the Druids is supposed 
to have been invented in Britain, and to have been 
introduced from that country into Gaul. To this day 
those who are anxious to make themselves more 
completely acquainted with it frequently visit the 
island for the purpose of study. The Druids do not 
serve in a campaign, and do not pay taxes along with 
their fellow-countrymen. They are exempted from 
all civil duties as well as from military service. Privi- 
leges so great induce many to submit themselves 
voluntarily to this education ; many others are sent 
by their parents and kinsfolk. These pupils are said 
to learn by heart a vast number of verses. Some, in 
consequence, remain under teaching for as many as 
twenty years. The Druids think it unlawful to com- 
mit this knowledge of theirs to writing (in secular 
matters and in public and private business they use 
Greek characters). This is a practice which they have, 
I think, adopted for two reasons. They do not wish 
that their system should become commonly known, 
or that their pupils, trusting in written documents, 
should less carefully cultivate their memory ; and t 
indeed, it does generally happen that those who rely 



10 BRITAIN BEFORE THE ROMANS. 

on written documents are less industrious in learning 
by heart, and have a weaker memory. The Druids' 
chief doctrine is that the soul of man does not perish, 
but passes after death from one person to another. 
They hold that this is the best of all incitements to 
courage as banishing the fear of death. They have 
much also to say about the stars and their motions, 
about the magnitude of the heavens and the earth, 
about the constitution of nature, about the power and 
authority of the immortal gods. And this they com- 
municate to their pupils." 

It does not seem likely that the Druidical system 
really came from Britain into Gaul, if it is the fact 
that the Celtic inhabitants of the island came from 
the mainland. It has been suggested T that in Caesar's 
time the Druid power had become weakened in Gaul, 
where the system of civil government was superseding 
that of the priests, but that in Britain, as being a less 
civilized country, it still retained its old predominance. 
The stone circles, of which Stonehenge is the most 
famous and perfect example, but which are found 
scattered over Great Britain and North-western 
France, are commonly supposed to have been seats 
of Druid worship. The word Druid is generally 
referred to the Greek word for an oak (8pv$) 

1 By Mr. C. Long in his edition of Caesar, " De Bello Gallico." 



II. 

CESAR IN BRITAIN. 

IN the year 55 B.C. Caius Julius Caesar, who had been 
appointed four years before to a five years' command 
in Gaul, 1 had conquered the whole of that country. 
The conquest, indeed, was not as complete as he 
seems to have imagined. Again and again the people 
rose against him, and five years more of fighting were 
required before the work could be said to have been 
thoroughly done. Still towards the end of the 
campaigning season in 55 he had carried his arms as 
far as the Ocean on the west, the Channel on the 
north, and the Rhine on the east. He had even 
crossed the Rhine, and ravaged the territory of certain 
German tribes beyond it. Then, after the manner of 
conquerors, he looked about for fresh enterprises in 
which to employ his troops, and it occurred to him 
to invade the neighbouring island of Britain. One of 

1 This command was voted, as the result of a political compact, in 
59. In the following year C?esar left Rome for his province, which 
included Illyricum and the two divisions of Gaul (south and north of 
the Alps). Illyiicum and Cisalpine Gaul were already Roman 
provinces, as was also, in Transalpine Gaul, the region known as the 
Provincial South-eastern France, reaching northwards as far as the 
Cevennes, and westward to the Upper Garonne. 



CjESAR prepares to cross. 13 

his reasons, as he states it himself in his Commen- 
taries (i.e., Notes on his Campaigns), was that he had 
found that the natives of Britain were in the habit of 
assisting the Gaul in their resistance to his armies. 
It may, however, be doubted whether this considera- 
tion weighed much with him. With the Channel com- 
manded, as it was, by Roman fleets, the Britons could 
have given but very little help to their neighbours 
across the sea. The summer was nearly over, but he 
thought that there would be time for what may be 
called a reconnaissance in force. Information about 
the island, its population, harbours, &c, which he had 
hitherto tried in vain to get, might thus be acquired, 
and would be useful in case he should see fit to make 
afterwards a more regular expedition. His first step 
was to send one Volusenus to reconnoitre the country. 
While he was awaiting his return, envoys arrived 
from several of the British tribes offering submission. 
He received them courteously, encouraged them to 
persevere in their good resolutions, and sent them 
back, in company with one Commius, a friendly Gaul, 
with the message that he should soon come in person 
to receive the submission of their countrymen. In 
four days' time Volusenus came back, having learnt, 
as Caesar sarcastically remarks, as much as was 
possible for one who had never ventured to leave his 
ship. Meanwhile Caesar had been busy preparing the 
means of transport. Eighty merchant ships were 
collected. These, with such ships of war as he had 
at command, would, he judged, be sufficient to carry 
across his army. But he had also eighteen other 
vessels, which were set apart for the transport of the 



14 CjESAR IN BRITAIN. 

cavalry. The force which he proposed to employ 
consisted of two legions. 

He set sail on the 27th of August, about three 
o'clock in the morning. At ten o'clock he sighted 
land, probably somewhere near Dover. The coast, he 
observed, was lined with armed forces of natives, and 
the " hills " (by which, doubtless, he means cliffs) were 
so near to the sea, that a javelin could easily be 
thrown from them on to the shore. The place therefore 
seemed unsuitable for landing. Accordingly he cast 
anchor, and waited till three o'clock in the afternoon 
for the rest of the fleet to come up. Meanwhile the 
higher officers were summoned to meet on his ship, 
and received instructions for their conduct of the 
landing of the troops. When all stragglers had come 
up, he gave the signal to weigh anchor, and having 
wind and tide in his favour, moved seven miles north- 
ward, probably to the neighbourhood of Deal, where 
the shore was level. 

As soon as the Roman ships began to move, the 
Britons followed them along the coast, the cavalry 
and chariots galloping on in advance. The landing 
was not effected without great difficulty. The ships 
drew so much water that they could not come very 
near to the land, and the soldiers, heavily weighted 
as they were with their arms and armour, had to jump 
off into deep water, get what footing they could 
among the breakers, and so make their way to land. 
The enemy, on the other hand, either standing on 
dry ground, or advancing a little way into the water, 
harassed them with showers of missiles. It is not to 
be wondered at that, under these circumstances, the 



x 6 CJESAR IN BRITAIN. 

Roman legionaries did not show quite as much 
alacrity and " dash " as they were accustomed to dis- 
play in battles on land. Their general did what he 
could to help and encourage them. He detached the 
ships of war from the rest of the fleet, and used them 
to make a diversion on the flank of the enemy. Their 
decks were manned with slingers and archers, and 
there were also catapults of the light, movable kind. 
A sharp fire was kept up on the Britons, who began 
to retreat out of range, and left clear the approach 
to the shore. Still the difficulty of the deep water 
remained. While the soldiers were hesitating to 
jump, the officer who carried the eagle of the tenth 
legion set them the example. After a brief prayer 
that his act might turn out well for the legion, he 
cried with a loud voice, " Leap down, men, unless 
you wish to betray your eagle to the enemy ; I shall 
certainly have done my duty to my country and my 
general." The same moment he leapt boldly into the 
water, and began to struggle shorewards, holding the 
eagle in his hands. The soldiers in his ship to a man 
followed his example, and these again were backed 
up by the rest of the army. 

Still there was a fierce struggle before a landing 
could be effected. The Romans could scarcely find 
a footing. As for keeping their ranks or following 
their standards, it was impossible. The enemy, on 
the other hand, who not only had the stronger posi- 
tion, but also knew the ground thoroughly, attacked 
them with every advantage on their side. Neverthe- 
less their resistance was ineffectual. Caesar manned 
the boats belonging to the ships of war, and sent them 



DEFEAT OF THE BRITONS. 1J 

to give help at any spot where he observed his troops 
in danger of being overpowered. When once dry 
land was gained, the day, of course, was won. In- 
deed, the Britons at once took to flight, and Caesar 
laments that for lack of cavalry he could not pursue 
them. " This was the one thing," he says, speaking, 
according to custom, in the third person, " that was 
wanting to Caesar's old good fortune." 

In the course of a day or two the Britons sent 
envoys to negotiate for peace, and with the envoys 
came Commius the Gaul. He had been roughly 
treated and imprisoned, and had not been released 
till after the Roman victory. The envoys threw the 
blame of this violation of law upon the common 
people, whom they sought to excuse by pleading their 
ignorance. Caesar professed himself ready to over- 
look the offence, while he demanded hostages for 
their good behaviour in the future. Some of these 
were at once handed over to him ; the rest, it was 
explained, belonged to distant parts of the country, 
and a few days must pass before they could be 
brought. 

On the 30th of August the ships with the cavalry 
on board hove in sight. But when they were within 
a short distance of the shore, the weather suddenly 
changed. Some were driven back to the port from 
which they had sailed, others were carried along the 
coast for some distance to the westward. Here they 
attempted to anchor, but the sea was too rough, and 
they were compelled to return to Gaiil. 

The same night another disaster happened to the 
expedition. It was the time of the full moon, and, 



l8 CMSAR IN BRITAIN. 

consequently, of the spring tides. About spring and 
neap tides, the Romans, accustomed to their own 
tideless sea, knew nothing, and they had made no 
preparations. The ships of war, which had been 
drawn up on land, were filled with water ; the 
merchant ships, which were at anchor, probably with- 
out the necessary length of cable, were greatly 
damaged by the unexpected rise of the tide, ac- 
companied, as it seems to have been, by some rough 
weather. Many were wrecked, the rest lost much of 
their tackling, and, for the present, were rendered 
useless. There was, of course, great consternation in 
the camp. There were no means, it seemed, of 
getting back to the continent, while no provision had 
been made for a stay. 

The Britons were quite as much alive to the im- 
portance of what had happened as the Romans 
themselves. Without ships, without cavalry, and 
without corn, the enemy, they thought, were helpless. 
They had had time also to estimate their force from 
the dimensions of the camp. It could not, they 
knew, be very large, and as the troops had been 
brought over with but little baggage, and so could 
be packed closely together, they believed it to be 
smaller than it really was. The hope sprang up that 
they might be able to destroy the invading army 
altogether. To inflict such a blow, they imagined, 
would be to prevent another invasion of the island for 
many years to come. Accordingly, the chiefs who 
had assembled at the camp found pretexts for leaving 
it, while fresh forces were brought down from the 
interior to the coast. 



STRATAGEM OF THE BRITONS. 1 9 

Caesar, though without positive knowledge of what 
was on foot, had his suspicions. The disaster to the 
ships would, he knew, raise the hopes of the Britons, 
and he found, at the same time, that no more hostages 
were brought into the camp. He lost no time in 
preparing for the two contingencies of retreat, and 
wintering in the island. Twelve of the ships that 
had suffered most damage were broken up, and the 
others were repaired with the metal and timber that 
were thus made available. The soldiers worked with 
so good a will that in a few days a sufficiently 
serviceable fleet was ready. 

Meanwhile the work of provisioning the camp had 
been busily carried on, and, as yet, without hind- 
rance. Everything indeed looked peaceful. The 
population was at work as usual in the fields, and 
visitors went in and out of the camp. But one day, 
when one of the two legions had, according to custom, 
gone out to collect corn, Csesar was informed by the 
pickets that an unusually large cloud of dust could be 
seen in the direction which the legion had taken. He 
at once guessed what had happened, and taking with 
him the cohorts on guard, while he ordered all the 
other available troops to follow, hastened to the 
relief of the foragers. He found them beset by the 
enemy, and in no small danger. The Britons had 
guessed what direction the foraging party would 
take. Only one spot remained where the corn had 
not been reaped, and it was in the woods that ad- 
joined this that they laid their ambuscade. The 
Romans, suspecting no danger, had piled their arms, 
and set about the work of reaping, though of course 



20 CMSAR IN BRITAIN. 

a part of the legion remained on guard. The Britons 
attacked the reapers, and killed some of them. When 
Caesar came up the legion had formed itself into a 
solid square. This was surrounded by cavalry and 
chariots and exposed to a continuous discharge of 
missiles. The arrival of the relieving force put an 
end to the attack, and Caesar did not think it 
advisable to assume the offensive. The two legions 
returned to the camp without having suffered any 
very serious loss. 

A continuance of bad weather for several days 
prevented the Romans from leaving, and the Britons 
from attacking the camp. The latter, however, were 
not idle. They sent messengers throughout the neigh- 
bouring districts, describing the weakness of the 
invaders, the magnitude of the booty to be got from 
them, and the advantage of striking such a blow as 
would secure for ever the freedom of the island. A 
large force of cavalry and infantry was thus collected. 
Caesar, meanwhile, had received a reinforcement of 
thirty cavalry, which Commius the Gaul brought with 
him from the continent. Knowing how useful these 
would be in pursuit, he resolved to give battle, and 
drew up his legion in front of the camp. An engage- 
ment followed, but the Britons, of course, could not 
stand up against the discipline and arms of the 
invaders. The victors pursued the fugitives till their 
strength was exhausted, and, after burning all the 
dwellings in the neighbourhood, returned to the 
camp. 

The very same day envoys appeared asking for 
peace, and this Caesar was ready enough to grant. 



CMSAR SETS SAIL FOR GAUL. 21 

He contented himself with doubling his demand for 
hostages. He did not, however, intend to wait till 
they should be brought into the camp, but directed 
that they should be sent after him to the mainland. 
He was, in fact, in a great hurry to go. The equinox 
was near, the weather could not be trusted, and his 
ships, hastily patched up as they had been, were 
scarcely seaworthy. Starting at midnight, possibly 
on the very day of the battle, he had the good 
fortune to make the passage without encountering 
any mishap. The expedition probably occupied 
about three weeks, having been begun on the 27th of 
August, and brought to an end some time before the 
24th of September. Caesar's narrative seems to be 
somewhat exaggerated. There could not have been 
time for the gathering of the great hosts of natives 
which he describes. It is probable that it was only a 
small region in South-eastern Britain that concerned 
itself about his coming. The expedition, too, was 
certainly not a success. As has been said, he was 
three weeks in the island, and never advanced as much 
as a mile from the shore. 




III. 



C^SAR IN BRITAIN. 



{SECOND EXPEDITION.) 

CESAR'S first invasion of Britain was, as has been 
said, a mere reconnaissance ; the second may be 
described as a serious effoit at conquest. Great 
preparations were made during the winter. Old ships 
were repaired, and new ones built, the latter being 
specially adapted for the transport of cargo and 
horses. The rendez-vons for the fleet was the Portus 
Itius? Some delay was caused by the necessity of 
chastising some tribes which had showed a disposition 
to rebel ; and when these operations were concluded a 
contrary wind, blowing from the north-west without 
any intermission for five-and-twenty day, prevented 
the departure of the fleet. Even at the last moment 
the flight of an important hostage from the camp 
caused the start to be postponed. 2 It was not till 
July 20th that Caesar set sail. He iiad more than six 
hundred ships, and these carried five legions, number- 

1 Probably Issant, near Boulogne ; possibly Boulogne itself. 

2 It is worth while to mention, as showing Caesar's uneasiness about 
the temper of Gaul, that he took a great number of hostages with him 
to Britain. 



THE SECOND LANDING. 23 

ing, it may be reckoned, with auxiliaries, about thirty- 
thousand effective troops, and two thousand cavalry. 
The fleet weighed anchor at sunset (which on July 
20th would be about eight o'clock). A light wind 
was blowing from the south-west, the tide, which was 
ebbing, was running in the opposite direction. At 
midnight the wind dropped, and the tide began to 
flow, carrying the fleet to the north-east. At dawn, 
which would be about three hours after midnight, 
Britain was seen on the left hand lying to the west- 
ward. The fleet had drifted past the North Foreland. 
The oars were then got out, and, the tide turning 
again, the ships made for the point where the landing 
had been effected the year before. The soldiers on 
board the transports worked, we are told, so hard that 
their heavy vessels kept up with the ships of war. No 
attempt was made by the natives to oppose a landing. 
They seem to have been overawed by the formidable 
appearance of the fleet, which had been increased by 
the craft belonging to private owners to more than 
eight hundred. 

Caesar lost no time in commencing operations. 
Without even staying to construct a camp he marched 
with the bulk of his army against the fortified position 
of the enemy. This was about twelve miles' distant 
on the banks of the Stour, and is described as having 
been strongly situated, and well constructed of earth- 
works and timber. The Romans, however, had little 
difficulty in taking it. The method of attack was 
that known as the " tortoise " (testudo), and has been 
thus described : 

" The men in each file stood close together, but with 



24 CAESAR IN BRITAIN. 

a space of about three feet between the files; excepting, 
of course, in the front rank, where the formation would 
be solid. This first rank held their shields in front 
of them. The other shields were held overhead, the 
length at right angles to the file. Thus between each 
two files a protected space, three feet wide, was left, 
through which the workmen could carry bush and 
faggot. This being rapidly piled, the soldiers kept 
mounting, stepping alternately to right and left, as 
the clear space was filled, and the place where they 
were standing was needed. Thus in a short time the 
testudo was formed, and the ditch was filled up. Then 
a rush drove the enemy easily from their works, and 
the position was taken." x 

Caesar did not permit any pursuit to be made, as 
he wished to fortify his camp without any further 
delay. 

The next day he sent three columns in pursuit of 
the enemy. These had just come in sight of the 
Britons when news arrived from the officer in com- 
mand of the fleet that great damage had been inflicted 
by a storm the night before. Caesar at once recalled 
his troops, and set the men to work repairing the 
ships. Ultimately these were drawn up on shore and 
defended by the same fortifications which protected 
the camp. These works were laborious, and occupied 
as much as ten days. When they were completed 
Caesar returned to the point from which he had been 
recalled by the bad news about the fleet. Meanwhile 
a large force of Britons had assembled, under the 
command of Caswallon (called Cassivelaunus by 

1 Messrs. Allen and Greenough's " Caesar," note in loc. 



BRITISH VALOUR. 25 

Caesar), an inland prince, whom the tribes by com- 
mon consent had made general-in-chief. The chariots 
and cavalry attacked the Roman horse, and, though 
finally repulsed, inflicted severe loss. A second attack, 
this time made upon the cohorts which were protect- 
ing the fortifications of the camp, was for a time suc- 
cessful. The Britons broke through the Roman line, 
held their own against two cohorts, both composed 
of first-rate troops, which were sent as a reinforce- 
ment, and were compelled to retreat only by the 
arrival of a much larger force. They were found, 
indeed, to be formidable enemies. The legionaries, 
with their heavy armour, were baffled by the quick- 
ness of their movements, and the cavalry were per- 
plexed by the ease with which their horsemen 
changed their tactics, showing themselves equally 
at home whether they were mounted or on foot. 
Their 'numbers, too, seemed inexhaustible, and fresh 
fighters were already ready to take the places of those 
that were weary or wounded. 

It is probable that the success with which they 
fought made them so confident that they abandoned 
their desultory tactics and ventured on something 
like a pitched battle. Caesar had sent out a strong 
force the next day to forage. The Britons attacked 
it, and ventured to engage the legions themselves 
when these came up to support their comrades. The 
result was a disastrous defeat. Many of the native 
levies were disheartened by the losses sustained, and 
dispersed. In fact, the Britons never could bring 
their whole force into the field again. 

Caesar now marched northward to attack Caswallon 



26 CmSAR IN BRITAIN. 

in his own territories. To do this it was necessary to 
cross the Thames. There was but one ford, and that 
deep and difficult. 1 Caesar found that the opposite 
bank was held by a large force of natives, besides 
being fortified by rows of stakes, one of which was 
below the water. It was his intention to send over 
his cavalry in advance, but the impetuosity of the 
infantry was such that they dashed into the river, 
made their way across, though the water was so deep 
that it came up to their necks, and reached the 
opposite shore as soon as did the horsemen. The 
Britons could not resist the combined attack of 
cavalry and infantry, but abandoned their position, 
and fled. 

Caswallon had now learnt by experience that a 
pitched battle with the Romans was hopeless. Ac- 
cordingly he disbanded the bulk of his forces and, 
keeping a force of war chariots with him, watched the 
march of the enemy. Everything in the way of pro- 
perty was removed from the line of their march. All 
who ventured to leave the main body for the sake of 
picking up a little plunder were promptly attacked, 
so that Caesar had to issue most stringent orders 



1 The situation of this ford has been much disputed. Some very 
ancient stakes have been found in the river near Weybridge, at a place 
called from them " Coweay Stakes." But these are at right angles to 
the bank, and rather suggest the idea of a bridge. It is difficult, now 
that the character of the river has been so changed by the locks which 
make it navigable, even to guess at the place where the ford may have 
been. The stream between Bray and Windsor is, or certainly was some 
years ago, more shallow than in any other place in the lower river, but 
it has been deepened here, within the present writer's recollection, by the 
construction of an additional lock. 



THE '"TOWN" OF CASWALLON. 2J 

against all straggling. All that he could do was to 
inflict as much damage on the country as possible by- 
ravaging and burning along the line of march. 

Disunion and jealousy among the British tribes 
now began to help the invader. Caswallon in former 
days had waged many wars against his neighbours. 
He had put to death the king of the Trinobantes 
(inhabiting Essex and the southern part of Suffolk), 
and driven the heir to the throne into exile. This 
tribe now sent envoys to Caesar, begging for the 
restoration of the banished prince, and offering their 
submission. The young man, who was in Caesar's 
camp, was immediately sent home, and the tribe was 
enjoined to furnish forty hostages and a supply of 
corn. This requisition was immediately obeyed. 

The example of the Trinobantes, whose country 
was now, of course, protected from injury, was fol- 
lowed by other tribes. From some of their envoys 
Caesar learnt that the "town" of Caswallon was not 
far from the place to which he had advanced. A 
" town " in the British language, Caesar explains, was 
nothing more than a piece of forest fortified by a 
rampart and ditch, by way of protection for them- 
selves and their cattle against sudden attacks. He at 
once marched to the spot. 1 He found that the posi- 
tion, besides being naturally strong, had been carefully 
fortified. But the Britons could not resist the assault 
which was promptly delivered on two sides of their 
fortress. They evacuated the place, leaving behind 
them a great quantity of cattle. 

1 The situation of this "town " is doubtful. St. Albans has been 
suggested as a possible locality. 




-£fc~ 


TZ— ' 


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j^-* aft ''*" 


,.V &*: 


-'^~V£r 




*■... •-. :*? - 





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J 



PLAN OF CAMP AT AMBRESBURY BANKS, EPPING FOREST. 

{Supposed British Totvn. From " Transactions of the Essex 
Field Club:') 



HOSTAGES AND YEARLY TRIBUTE, 29 

Meanwhile Caswallon attempted a diversion by 
suggesting to the chiefs of Cantium (Kent) an attack 
on the camp which Caesar had constructed by the 
shore. The attack was made, but without success, 
and the Britons suffered greatly from a sally of the 
garrison. 

The British king now sent envoys to treat for 
peace, using the good offices of Commius to obtain 
a hearing from Caesar. The Roman general was 
ready enough to listen. He had no desire to stay in 
the island. He had received disquieting news from 
Gaul, and the summer was fast passing. (It was now 
about the middle of September.) He was well aware 
that the Britons might, if they chose, protract the 
contest in a very inconvenient way. Accordingly he 
demanded a number of hostages (insisting, this time, 
on their being put into his hands at once), fixed 
the amount of yearly tribute which was to be 
paid to Rome, and finally enjoined Caswallon not 
to attack the tribes which had made friends with 
Rome. 

He then marched back to the coast. There he 
found the damaged ships repaired. Some, however, 
had been altogether lost, and, as he had a great 
number of prisoners with him, it would be impossible, 
he saw, to transport the whole body at once. A part 
he sent over immediately, and this reached Gaul with- 
out any mishap. But when the ships were returning 
empty only a few reached their destination. Caesar, 
however, would not wait. He crowded his troops on 
board such vessels as he had, and took them across 
without losing a single ship. 



30 



C2ESAR IN BRITAIN. 



This marvellous good fortune — the Channel four 
times crossed by large armaments in perfect safety — 
was the fitting close of a brilliant exploit. Still, as 
Tacitus says, Caesar pointed out the country to those 
that came after him, rather than conquered it. 




IV. 



BRITAIN AND THE SUCCESSORS OF C/ESAR. 



We maybe sure that the tribute promised by King 
Caswallon was not regularly paid, if it was paid at all. 
Caesar had plenty to occupy him during the remainder 
of his stay in Gaul in consolidating his conquest of 
that country, and, after he had left it, in making himself 
master of Rome. Anyhow, no mention of Britain 
occurs in Roman history till we find the name in the 
Marmor Ancyranum T a record of achievements which 
Augustus caused to be executed towards the end of 
his reign. The Marmor is unfortunately imperfect, 
but we can gather from it that certain British chiefs 
paid tribute to Rome. It is likely enough that the 
Emperor, after he found himself firmly established 
on the throne, would claim some acknowledgment of 
his sovereignty, and that the British chiefs would give 
it rather than incur the risk of another invasion. We 
may safely reject a statement, doubtfully ascribed to 
Livy, that Augustus himself landed on the island on 
the strength of Suetonius's positive assertion that no 
Roman had ventured thither in the interval (89 years) 
between the departure of Caesar and the expedition of 

1 A tablet found at Ancyra (now Angora) the Roman capital of 
Galatia. 



32 BRITAIN AND THE SUCCESSORS OF CjESAR. 

Claudius, of which I shall soon have to speak. 1 The 
policy of Tiberius was to contract rather than to 
extend the limits of the Empire, and during his reign 
no attention was paid to a country so remote. 2 

1 There are occasional allusions to Britain and the Britons in the 
Augustan poets, and it may be interesting to bring them together. Virgil, 
in his first Eclogue (B.C. 40), speaks of the l'.ritons, "utterly divided from 
the rest of the world," as a remote tribe which his exile might visit. (Pro- 
fessor Conington, however, thinks that he regards them as " a Roman 
province to which settlers might conceivably be sent." This, however, 
is very doubtful.) In the second Georgic (b.c. 36 ?) they are men- 
tioned as the picturesque, outlandish figures embroidered on the curtain 
of the theatre. In Tubulins (54-18 B.C.), if the Panegyric on Messalla 
be his, we hear of the "Britons not yet subdued by Roman arms" as 
future objects of that general's valour. In Propertius (51-15) they are 
classed with the Parthians as enemies of Rome. Ovid mentions them 
with epithets connected with the sea, but says nothing more. The 
allusions of Horace are more significant. In the seventh epode, pro- 
bably one of the earliest of his poems, and attributed to the year 40 B.C., 
we hear of the "unsubdued Briton," mentioned in connection with the 
Parthians. In Odes i. 21, the poet prays that hunger and pestilence 
may be warded off from the Roman ruler and his people, and sent 
to "the Parthians and Britons." In i. 35, Augustus is "about to 
march against the far-off Britons." In Odes iii. 4, they appear as 
"the Britons savage to strangers," whom the poet, safe in the protec- 
tion of the Muses, is to visit. But in the next ode the benignant god- 
head [praesetis Divus) of Augustus, is said to be proved by his having 
added "the Britons and the terrible Parthians to the Empire." The 
exaggeration seems to be the same in both cases. The Parthians 
gave back, as a matter of policy or friendship, the spoils which they 
had taken at the defeat of Crassus. This arrangement the Roman 
poets describe by such phrases as " tearing down the Roman standards 
from the Parthian shrines." Strabo, who lived in the reign of Augustus 
and Tiberius, says of the Britons that ' ' some of their princes sought 
by embassies and other attentions to conciliate the friendship of 
Augustus, made offerings in the Capitol, and put their whole island 
under the protection of Rome." The impression gained from the 
whole of these references is something like that stated in the text. 

2 The single reference to Britain under the reign of this prince is that 
the chiefs of the island sent back to Germanicus some of the ship- 
wrecked soldiers (this was in a.d. 16). 



CALIGULA'S WHIMS. 33 

Tiberius' successor, Caligula, made a pretence of sub- 
duing the island, but the story of his proceedings, as it 
is told by Suetonius and Dio Cassius, is so ludicrous 
as to be scarcely credible. It runs thus : — ■ 

Caligula, who was unquestionably a madman, 
conceived a sudden whim of making a campaign 
against the Germans. While he was in camp he was 
visited by Adminius, one of the sons of the British 
King Cunobelin, 1 who had been exiled by his father, 
and who hoped to be restored by Roman help. Cali- 
gula at once sent a boastful despatch to Rome, declaring 
that the whole island had been surrendered to him. 
His next fancy was to obtain some material tokens of 
his conquest. Accordingly he drew up his army, 
complete with horse, foot, and the artillery of catapults 
and machines, on the Gallic shore of the Channel. No 
one could even guess at his intention, when he suddenly 
gave the order that the soldiers were to fill their 
helmets and pockets with shells. " These," he said, 
" are the spoils of the ocean, and are due to the Capitol 
and the Palatine," whither he accordingly sent them, 
with directions that they should be laid up among the 
treasures of the Empire. There was more sense in the 
erection of a lofty tower on the coast, which was to 
serve as a lighthouse, as well as to be a local memorial 
of his victories. These and these only were the 
results of what Tacitus calls " the absurdity of the 
expeditions of Caligula." The tranquillity of Britain, 
however, was not to last much longer. As usual it 
was a pretender who invited the interference of Rome. 

1 The " Cymbeline " of Shakespeare. 



34 BRITAIN AND THE SUCCESSORS OF CMSAR. 

In A.D. 43 one Bericus l applied to the Emperor 
Claudius for help. At the same time his extradition 
was demanded of Rome by his enemies at home. 
The Emperor determined to avail himself of the 
opportunity. The demand of the British envoy for 
the surrender of the fugitive was refused, and Aulus 
Plautius, who had been Consul fourteen years before, 
and then held a command in Gaul, was entrusted with 
the care of the proposed expedition. Four legions, 
the Second, the Ninth, the Fourteenth, and the 
Twentieth, were chosen for this service. The soldiers 
were exceedingly unwilling to go. Britain seemed to 
them to lie beyond the boundaries of the world, and 
they positively refused to proceed. Claudius sent his 
freedman Narcissus to remonstrate with them. Nar- 
cissus mounted the tribunal, and sought to address 
the troops. But they interrupted him with cries of 
To Saturnalia I They meant that it was no holiday- 
time when, as during the festival of Saturn in 
December, a slave might play the part of a master. 
After this, however, they returned to their obedience. 
The force, which, as the legions now had numerous 
auxiliaries attached to them, may be reckoned at 
about forty thousand, was divided into three parts. 
The passage across the Channel was long and difficult, 
the transports being more than once driven back by 
adverse winds ; but the landing was effected without 
any opposition from the natives. The arrival of the 
army, we are told, was unexpected ; but we have seen 

1 We have no information as to who this Bericus was, but the name 
' Veric " appears on some British coins, and it is probable that, as Dean 
Merivale suggests, that the two may be the same. 



CARACTACUS. 35 

before, in the second expedition of Caesar, that the 
Britons did not feel themselves able to resist the 
landing of a really powerful force. 

King Cunobelin had died in the interval between 
46 and 43, and his power was divided between his 
sons, Caractacus (Caradoc) and Togidumnus. These 
princes, who were in command of the united British 
force, were successively defeated by Plautius in the 
marshes and forests to which they had retired. The 
account of the campaign now becomes very obscure. 
Plautius received the submission of part of the tribe 
of the " Boduni," supposed to be the same as the 
Dobuni who inhabited what is now known as Glouces- 
tershire. This seems difficult to believe, and it is im- 
possible to identify the river mentioned as that which 
Plautius reached, after passing through the country 
of the Dobuni, with the Severn. Possibly the Med- 
way may be meant. Whatever was the river in 
question, the Romans crossed it unexpectedly, thanks 
to the skill of the Batavian cavalry in swimming. 
The enemy abandoned their position, and an officer, 
who afterwards became famous, Vespasian, was sent 
in pursuit of them. The Britons fell back upon the 
Thames. Crossing it themselves somewhere in its 
course between London and the sea, they awaited the 
invaders in the confidence that this obstacle at least 
would prove too formidable for the enemy. The 
Batavian cavalry again showed their skill and courage, 
while other troops crossed the river " a little further 
up by means of bridges," a statement which we must 
interpret, it would seem, of London, as the Thames 
has never been bridged below that point. Here, how- 



36 BRITAIN AND THE SUCCESSORS OF C/ESAR. 

ever, a reverse was suffered. The pursuit of the flying 
Britons was pushed too far ; the Romans were en- 
tangled in what are now known as the Essex Marshes, 
and lost many of their number. 

Togidumnus had been slain in one of these engage- 
ments. The Britons, however, showed no disposition 
to submit, and Plautius felt, or pretended to feel, 
some doubt as to the result. He sent, as he had been 
instructed to send, should any emergency arise, for 
Claudius himself. The Emperor started from Rome 
without delay as soon as the summons reached him. 
The forces which he was to take with him were in 
readiness, and included a troop of war elephants. He 
sailed from Ostia to Marseilles, traversed the length 
of Gaul overland or by navigable rivers, crossed over 
to Britain, and effected a junction with the army of 
Plautius, which was awaiting his arrival on the banks 
of the Thames, Suetonius declares that the Emperor 
fought no battle, and, indeed, saw no blood shed ; but 
Suetonius is always disposed to depreciate the Julian 
or hereditary emperors, and it is safer to take Dio 
Cassius as our authority. Dio relates that Claudius 
crossed the Thames with the combined forces, van- 
quished the Britons, who had gathered a great force 
to resist him, and captured Camalodunum, 1 the capital 
town of Cunobelin and his dynasty. The neigh- 
bouring tribes gave in their submission, and Claudius 
within a few days returned to Rome (from which he 
was absent scarcely six months), and celebrated his 

1 Camalodunum may be identified with the modern Colchester, i.e., 
Coloniacastra. But it must be remembered that a British oppidum was 
an extensive enclosure, large enough to contain pasture for the cattle 
which it was intended to protect. 



CLAUDIUS. 



37 



successes by a splendid triumph, the Senate conferring 
upon him the title of Britannicus. 1 A relic of these 
honours still remains in the fragment of an inscrip- 
tion, which records how " without any loss he van- 
quished the kings of Britain." 

Whatever successes Claudius may have won, the 
island was far from being conquered. King Caradoc 
himself, though he had lost his capital, continued to 
resist. Vespasian was sent to do battle with him. His 
exploits were without question considerable, for it was 
now, as Tacitus puts it, that he was singled out for 
his destiny as Emperor of Rome ; but these have 




COIN OF CLAUDIUS. 

{The first occasion on which allusion is made to Britain on the coinage 

of Rome. ) 

been very briefly related, and it is impossible to 
recover the details. The only incident related by Dio, 
that on one occasion the general was surrounded by 
the enemy, and was rescued from them by the daring 
of his son Titus, must be pronounced a fiction, as 
Titus could not have been more than six years old. 
" He fought," says Suetonius, including all his British 
campaigns, " thirty times with the enemy, subdued 
two very powerful tribes, and subjugated the Island 

1 This descended to his son, the unhappy lad who was thrust aside by 
the ambition of his step-mother, the younger Agrippina, to make room 
for Nero, and was afterwards poisoned by the usurper. 



38 BRITAIN AND THE SUCCESSORS OF C^LSAR. 

of Vectis (Isle of Wight)." He was therefore engaged 
in the south and west. As the Regni (inhabiting 
what is now Sussex) had made terms with the 
Romans, 1 w r e may locate the conquests of Vespasian 
in Hampshire, Dorsetshire, and Wiltshire. One of 
the two " very powerful tribes " may have been the 
Durotriges. Prasutagus, king of the Iceni (Norfolk 
and Suffolk), followed the example of Cogidumnus, 
and sought the friendship of Rome. He even imi- 
tated the flattery or precaution commonly practised 
by Roman nobles anxious to secure for their families 
at least a portion of their wealth, and named the 
Emperor among his legatees. We shall hear more 
hereafter of the outcome of his dealings with Rome. 
In 47 A.D. Plautius was recalled. He was con- 
sidered to have conducted his campaigns with great 
judgment, and received special honours from the 
Emperor. An " ovation," or smaller triumph, was 
decreed to him, and Claudius walked by his side 
both as he went to the Capitol and as he returned. 
He had the satisfaction, if the passage in Dio is 
genuine, of exhibiting British gladiators in the arena. 
Ostorius Scapula was sent to succeed him. 

1 " Cogidumnus remained," says Tacitus, " a most faithful ally down 
to our times." If the historian visited Britain in company with Agri- 
cola (see p. 58), he may have seen this prince in extreme old age. 
Cogidumnus seems, from an inscription found at Chichester, to have 
assumed the Roman names of Tiberius Claudius. 



V. 

CARACTACUS. 

OSTORIUS SCAPULA found that his predecessor's 
victories had left him much to do. There had been 
an interval of inaction between the departure of one 
commander and the arrival of another, and the Britons 
had availed themselves of it to invade the country of 
the tribes friendly to Rome. Though it was very 
late in the year, Ostorius at once set about the con- 
struction of a line of forts, which was to keep the 
hostile tribes in check. Tacitus, the only authority 
that we have to follow, is here very obscure. He 
speaks of the Severn as one of the limits of this line. 
The other is uncertain ; but it has been guessed to 
be the Nen. Anyhow the proceedings of Ostorius 
seems to have offended the Iceni, a powerful people 
in the east of the island, which had hitherto been 
friendly. The Iceni were followed into rebellion by 
several dependent tribes. Ostorius acted with the 
old Roman energy. The main body of the legions 
was elsewhere, but he attacked the enemy's camp 
with his force of cavalry and friendly Britons, and 
carried it by storm. 1 The besieged were entangled 

1 Tacitus does not give us a hint of where this took place. 



40 CARACTACUS. 

in their own defences, and made a desperate resist- 
ance ; but the Roman discipline could not be resisted. 
The last being thus reduced to submission, Ostorius 
at once marched to the extreme west to attack the 
Cangi, who are supposed to have inhabited the penin- 
sula of Carnarvonshire. He had nearly reached the 
"coast which faces Ireland," when he was called 
north by disturbances among the Brigantes, a power- 
ful people occupying what is now Lancashire and 
Yorkshire. The Brigantes quieted, he was called south- 
ward again by a movement of the Silures under King 
Caradoc. It is rather puzzling to be told that the 
Roman general, to keep them in check, founded the 
colony r of Camalodunum (Colchester). A military 
station in the east could not exercise a very direct 
influence on a turbulent tribe in the west. Anyhow 
the general found it necessary to take the field and to 
march against the Silures. Caradoc did not await the 
attack in his own country. He did not suppose that 
his rude levies could be a match for the Roman 
troops ; but he hoped much from being able to choose 
the field of battle, and he chose it in the territories of 
his neighbours on the north, the Ordovices. 2 

The scene of the final conflict it is impossible to 

1 A Roman colony was a military settlement. Lands belonging to 
the conquered were assigned to soldiers who had served their time with 
the legions. These veterans seem to have dwelt in the town and to 
have cultivated ; perhaps permitted the former owners to cultivate on 
certain conditions the farms which had been made over to them. " The 
colony," says Tacitus, " was meant to act as a shelter in case of a 
rebellion, and as a way of teiching the subject people respect for Roman 
laws." We shall see how Camalodunum fulfilled these duties. 

2 The Ordovices are located in North Wales and the western part of 
the neighbouring English counties. 



ORATION ON THE BATTLE-FIELD. 41 

identify. Tacitus tells us that the British king chose 
a place where advance and retreat alike would be 
difficult for the Romans and comparatively easy for 
his own men, that this place was on a lofty hill, the 
easier slopes of which were fortified with ramparts of 
stone, and that a river of uncertain depth, i.e., it may 
be conjectured, with no regular ford, flowed in front. 1 
The chiefs of the various tribes which had furnished 
contingents to the army encouraged their men to 
make a brave struggle for freedom. The king him- 
self hurried from line to line protesting that the result 
of the day would be either to set Britain free or to 
fasten its chains for ever. He appealed to the 
memory of those who a hundred years before had 
driven back the dictator Caesar, and to whose valour 
they owed it that they were still free, and could still 
call their wives and their children their own. The 
Britons answered the appeal with wild shouts of 
applause, and swore by all that was most sacred to 
them not to give way. 

So formidable was the aspect of the enthusiastic 
multitude of the frowning hill-tops, the rampart, and 
the river, that Ostorius was inclined to manoeuvre. 
But his troops insisted upon being at once led to the 
attack. This was a kind of disobedience which 
Roman generals were not inclined to resist, and 
Ostorius gave the signal for advance. He had, how- 
ever, surveyed the ground, and knew where the attack 

1 Dean Merivale gives a doubtful preference to Coxall Knoll, near 
Lentwardine.on the Teme, among many places for which the distinction 
of being the scene of the great battle has been claimed. Earthworks 
are still to be seen upon the hill. 



42 CARACTACUS. 

could be most easily and profitably delivered. The 
river was easily crossed. We have seen the Roman 
legionaries surmounting much more formidable 
obstacles. The assailants suffered most when they 
came to the rampart. For some time they stood 
exposed to the shower of missiles which the Britons 
poured upon them. Here the loss in killed and 
wounded was considerable. But it was not long 
before they formed a testudo? and under its shelter 
tore down the rude defence of uncemented stones. 
The Britons could not hold their own in a hand-to- 
hand struggle with the well-armed legionaries. They 
retreated to the heights, but both the heavy and the 
light-armed troops followed them. Both were better 
equipped for battle than themselves. The skirmishers 
had artillery of longer range ; the legionaries were 
protected by breast-plates and helmets, and were 
powerfully armed with swords and javelins of the 
best temper. 2 Even the light arms of native allies of 
the enemy were more serviceable than anything that 
the patriots possessed. Victory did not long remain 
doubtful. Caradoc's wife and daughter were captured, 
and his brothers yielded themselves prisoners. 

The king himself escaped for a time, and took 
refuge with Cartismandua, Queen of the Brigantes. 
She put him in chains, and delivered him to the 
Romans. 

It is impossible to assign to their proper years the 
various events of the war which came to an end with 
the capture of Caradoc ; but we know that he had 

1 See description of this formation on p. 23. 
It is probable that many of the British weapons were of bronze. 



CARADOC IN ROME. 43 

held out for eight years against the power of Rome. 1 
His fame as a national champion had spread not only 
over Britain and Gaul, but even into Italy. All were 
anxious to see this brave chieftain, and none more so 
than the Emperor himself. Caradoc was sent to Rome, 
and a great spectacle was made out of the exhibition 
of the famous prisoner. The populace thronged the 
Field of Mars ; the Praetorians, or household troops, 
were drawn up in arms in front of their camp, and a 
tribunal was erected in the midst of the array, with 
the standard behind, and two thrones in front, on 
which sat Claudius and the Empress Agrippina. 
Military etiquette was shocked to see a woman seated 
before the standards, but Agrippina held herself, not 
without reason, to be the true ruler of Rome. To 
this spot the procession made its way. In front came 
the vassals of the captive king. Behind these were 
carried the collars of gold and other decorations and 
spoils which he had himself won in earlier wars from 
British rivals. Then came his brothers, his daughter 
and his wife, and, last of all, Caradoc himself. All 
his companions prostrated themselves on the ground ; 
the king alone stood erect. The speech which he was 
permitted to deliver has been thus reported by 
Tacitus, but how much belongs to the historian, how 
much to the king, it is impossible to determine : 

" Had my moderation in prosperity been equal to 
my noble birth and fortune, I should have entered 
this city as your friend rather than as your prisoner ; 
and you would not have disclaimed to welcome as 

1 It was in a.d. 43 that Claudius crossed over into Britain, and in 50 
that Caradoc was taken prisoner. 



CARADOC PARDONED BY CLAUDIUS. 45 

an ally a king of illustrious descent who ruled many 
nations. My present lot is as glorious to you as it 
is degrading to myself. I had horses, soldiers, arms, 
and wealth. What wonder if I was loath to part 
with them ! You are indeed determined to rule the 
whole world ; but does it follow that all the world is 
to welcome servitude ? Had I been at once surren- 
dered to your power, neither my fall nor your triumph 
would have gained their present distinction. Put me 
to death, and my whole story will be forgotten. Spare 
me, and your clemency will be remembered for ever." 
Claudius, who along with much weakness and 
vanity, had some generous impulses, pardoned the 
king and his family. They were not, however, per- 
mitted to return to their native country. 1 

1 According to one historian, Caradocis said to have exclaimed when 
he saw the size and magnificence of Rome, " Strange that they who 
own possessions so many and so splendid should envy us our poor 
huts ! " An interesting conjecture connects the Claudia mentioned by 
Martial (iv. 13) as a British lady married to one Pudeus with the family 
of Caractacus. She may have been the "daughter" mentioned as 
being one of the prisoners. This is not impossible, as Caradoc may 
have taken the family name of the Emperor, when he settled down to 
spend the rest of his life as a Roman subject in Italy. The times, how- 
ever, hardly suit. The daughter, who was a prominent figure in the 
procession, was probably a grown woman, and in A.D. 60 (and Martial 
could scarcely have written earlier) would be past the usual age of a 
Roman bride. It is more probable that she was the daughter of King 
Cogidubnus, whom we know to have taken the name of Claudius, 
calling himself Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus. This Claudia becomes 
still more interesting to us if she can be identified with the Claudia 
mentioned by St. Paul in 2 Tim. iv. 21, and mentioned along with a 
Pudens. Dean Alford suggests that this Claudia may have become a 
Christian through her connection with Pomponia, wife of Aulus 
Plautius, of whom Tacitus relates that she was accused of having 
attached herself to some "foreign superstition," and that she lived a 
"long life of unbroken melancholy," a possible description, from a 



46 CARACTACUS. 

The resistance of the Silures was not terminated 
by the captivity of their king. Whether it was that 
their despair made them irresistible, or that the 
Romans were rendered careless by success, it is certain 
that the Britons won more than one victory. A party 
that had been sent to fortify positions in the district 
was attacked with such fury that the camp prefect 
with eight of his centurions and a number of his best 
soldiers were killed. Only the prompt arrival of sup- 
ports saved the force from destruction. Not long after 
the main Roman army suffered a severe check. A 
force of foragers was routed by a sudden attack of 
the Britons, and the cavalry sent to support them 
were repulsed. Ostorius, who was present in person, 
brought his light cohorts into action, but without 
success, and it was only when the heavy armed 
legions came up that a stand was made. On the 
whole the result was a British victory. The Silures 
were, of course, greatly encouraged by this result, 
and they continued to wage a desultory war with all 
the more vigour, when Ostorius, impatient at their 
obstinate resistance, was reported to have declared 
that the very name of the Silures should perish as 
completely as that of the Sagambri had perished. 1 

Roman point of view, of the profession of Christianity. Anyhow, 
Claudia was of British birth, and, if Martial, writing on the occasion of 
her marriage with Pudens, is to be believed, a very charming young lady. 

" Our Claudia see, true Roman, though she springs 
From a long line of Britain's painted kings ; 
Italia's self might claim so fair a face, 
And Athens envy her her matchless grace." 

x The Sagambri, a German tribe, had been removed bodily by 
Augustus into Roman territory. 



DEATH OF OSTORIUS. 47 

Worn out by the incessant activity of the enemy 
and by the misconduct of his own officers — two cohorts 
were lost through the greed of their commanding 
officers for plunder — Ostorius died. The Britons re- 
joiced to think that if he had not fallen on the field, 
the war had certainly brought him to his end. 

Ostorius was succeeded by Didius Gallus, who was 
contented on the whole to maintain the Roman 
dominion as he had found it. Little of importance 
took place, but it is to be noticed that the leader of the 
Britons was now Venutius, the husband of that Queen 
Cartismandua who had betrayed King Caradoc. 
Didius Gallus surrendered his government in 57, and 
was succeeded by another aged officer, Quintus 
Veranius, 1 who died within a year of his coming 
into Britain. In the following year Nero, whose 
jealousy had probably had something to do with the 
appointment of inefficient commanders, sent one of 
the best soldiers of the time, Suetonius Paulinus, to 
take up the command. 2 

The chronology of these successive governors is 
uncertain, but we may conjecturally state their terms 
of office as follows : — 

Plautius ... ... ... 43-47 

Ostorius ... ... ... 47-50 

Didius ... ... ... 50-57 

Veranius ... ... ... 57—58 



1 Veranius had held office under Caligula forty years before. 

2 "No one," says Tacitus, speaking of a time ten years later, " had 
in these days a greater military reputation than Suetonius." 



VI. 

BOADICEA. 

No details have been preserved for us of the cam- 
paigns which Suetonius Paulinus carried on during 
the first two years of his government (A.D. 59-60), 
but we are told in general terms that they were very 
successful. What we know is, that in his third year 
he felt that the work of conquest had been so well 
done that he could venture to attack Mona (the 
modern Anglesey), the stronghold of Druid worship, 
and, we may venture to say, of British independence. 
To do this in safety he must have subjugated the 
Silures, so long the obstinate enemies of Rome, who 
would otherwise have threatened his rear. The real 
danger, of which he seems to have had no foreboding, 
came, we shall see, from the opposite side of the 
island. 

The legions which he had at his command were 
four in number — the Second, the Ninth, the Four- 
teenth, and the Twentieth. Of these the Second was 
probably stationed in the valleys of the Severn 
and the Wye, the Ninth among the Iceni, and the 
Twentieth on the borders of the Brigantes, who were 
still independent. The Fourteenth was under the 



SUBJUGATION OF MONA. 49 

general's immediate command, and having been em- 
ployed during his campaigns in the west, was now to 
complete its work by the subjugation of Mona. 

The infantry of the legion was ferried over the 
channel that divides Mona from the mainland in flat- 
bottomed boats ; the cavalry crossed by fording or 
swimming. 1 The sight that met their eyes as they 
approached the land was strange and terrible enough 
to strike them, hardy soldiers as they were, with 
astonishment. A vast multitude of armed men lined 
the shore. Women robed in black, with their long 
hair streaming dishevelled behind them, ran wildly, 
torch in hand, among the ranks, while the Druid 
priests, with their white robes and chaplets of oak, 
stood lifting their hands to the skies, and pouring out 
curses upon the invaders. For some moments the 
assailants halted in dismay, while the Britons 
showered missiles upon them. Then they recovered 
themselves. What was there to fear in an army of 
priests and women ? Probably the defenders of Mona 
had little real strength. Certainly they made but 
little resistance. The Druids were slaughtered, and 
their bodies thrown into the flames of their own 
altars ; the groves, where hideous rites of human 
sacrifice had been practised, were cut down. 

Suetonius was thus employed when tidings reached 
him of a native rising in the east of the island, 

1 The Menai Straits are now a deep channel where the tide runs 
rapidly. There is nothing like a ford, and to swim across would be a 
feat requiring exceptional strength. Tacitus' words — and Tacitus may 
generally be trusted when he speaks of British matters — are so precise, 
that we are driven to suppose a great alteration in the character of the 
channel since his time. 



50 BOADICEA. 

followed by dreadful outrages. The rebellion had 
been provoked by the greed and wickedness of the 
Roman officials. Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, 
hoping to secure for his family at least a portion of 
his vast wealth, had divided it by will between the 
Emperor and his two daughters. 1 He was cruelly dis- 
appointed. The rapacity of the Romans, which had 
been kept in check during his life, broke out without 
restraint on his death. His kingdom was overrun, his 
very palace plundered. His queen, Boadicea, was 
cruelly scourged ; his daughters outraged. Nor did 
his people escape. The nobles were stripped of their 
property, while the humbler class was harassed by the 
sudden calling in of money lent on mortgage. 2 The 
people flew to arms, and were joined by the Trino- 
bantes and other smaller tribes. The first object of 
their attack was the colony of Camalodunum. The 
veteran soldiers who were its inhabitants were lawless, 
oppressive, and cruel. The temple of the deified 
Claudius, which was its chief building, was regarded 
with especial dislike by the Britons as a sign of their 
slavery. A new kind of extortion had been invented 
in the college of priests that was attached to it. 
Wealthy natives were elected into it, and found their 
property wasted in its costly worship. Even the 

1 This was a common practice at Rome. Tacitus tells us that his 
father-in-law, Agricola, did the same thing, and ridicules the delight 
which Domitian displayed at the compliment. "His mind was ho 
blinded and perverted by flattery, that he did not know that it is only a 
bad emperor whom a good father names in his will." 

2 Dio Cassius mentions the name of the philosopher Seneca as thus 
suddenly demanding the money which he had lent on mortgage. But 
Dio is very bitter against Seneca, whom he elsewhere accuses of vice 
arid extravagance very inconsistent with his professions. 



CAPTURE OF CAMALODUNUM. 51 

safety of the place had been neglected. Fortified 
towns are always inconvenient places of residence, 
and Camalodunum had been left without walls. 

There had been, it was said, warnings of the coming 
disaster. The image of victory fell to the ground in 
such a posture that it looked like one that had fled 
from the enemy and stumbled in his flight. Strange 
sounds of wailing was heard in the council chamber 
and the theatre of the colony, and strange sights 
seen on the shore and in the river. The colonists 
begged for help from the Procurator, or Civil 
Governor, of the province. He sent them two 
hundred men, and these but half armed. The 
regular garrison of the colony was small. Even 
then common precautions were not taken. If the 
non-combatants had been sent away, and the town 
hastily fortified with a ditch and rampart, it might 
still have been saved. Neither the one thing nor the 
other was done. There was no one to take the lead 
and order vigorous measures, while those who sym- 
pathised with the revolt hindered all action. The 
only strong place in the town was the Temple of 
Claudius ; to this, when the storm of invasion burst 
upon them, the colonists fled. It held out for two 
days, and then was taken by storm. Petilius Cerialis, 
a brilliant soldier, but capable of making great 
mistakes, hurried up with the Ninth Legion. The 
victorious Britons turned upon him, and cut his 
infantry to pieces. Cerialis himself, with his cavalry 
contrived to make his way back to his camp, which was 
probably near the Wash. The Civil Governor, whose 
rapacity had had much to do with the revolt, escaped 



52 BOADICEA. 

into Gaul, and for the time Eastern Britain was lost 
to Rome. 

The whole province might have been lost also but 
for the courage of Suetonius. He marched back 
from Mona with his own legion, the Fourteenth. A 
part of the Twentieth was withdrawn from its station 
on the border of the Brigantes to join him, and his 
force would have been still further increased by the 
Second from the valley of the Severn but for the 
cowardice of its commander, who did not venture to 
leave his camp. Suetonius's original plan had been 
to make Londinium the base of his operations, but he 
found himself compelled to change it. The Second 
Legion had failed him, and the Ninth had been de- 
stroyed. He had only one legion and the veterans 1 
of another, scarcely ten thousand troops in all. He 
resolved to leave Londinium to the enemy. It was a 
populous and wealthy town ; but he was not strong 
enough to defend it. The prayers and tears of the 
inhabitants could not move him from his purpose. 
All that he could do was to allow the able-bodied to 
accompany his march. Londinium was sacked and 
destroyed by the insurgents, and Verulamium (St. 
Albans) met with the same fate. The Britons did 
not attack the military posts, but wreaked an easier 
vengeance on the unfortified towns. No quarter was 
given, no prisoners taken. Men, women, and children 
were put to death with hideous cruelty. It was the 
oppressions of years for which vengeance was taken. 



1 Soldiers who had served their time, but remained in the camp as 
combatants, being free from other duties. 



MOVEMENTS OF SUETONIUS. 53 

Seventy, one account says eighty, thousand victims 
perished. 

Of the movements of Suetonius after he evacuated 
London we can only guess. The historian tells us 
that the place which he chose for the decisive battle 
had hills on either side and a forest behind. His 
heavy armed infantry was massed in the centre, the 
light troops were on either flank, and the cavalry 
were posted in advance of both wings. The Britons 
covered the whole plain in front, in number, if Dio is 
to be believed, a hundred and twenty thousand. So 
confident were they of victory that their women stood 
on waggons behind their army to watch the battle. 

Boadicea addressed her troops from an artificial 
mound. Dio speaks of her gigantic stature, her stern 
features, the fierce glance of her eyes, and the deep 
tones of her voice. Her hair, of the deepest red, fell 
in thick luxuriance to her hips ; a heavy chain of 
twisted gold was round her neck. She was clad in a 
tunic of brightly-coloured tartan, with a thick military 
cloak buckled over it, and she held a spear in her 
right hand. We need not reproduce the speech which 
Dio puts into her mouth. It is just what a rhetorician 
would have written, a discourse on the blessing of 
liberty, the curse of slavery, a contrast between British 
simplicity and Roman luxury, and an attempt to per- 
suade her hearers that their light arms were better 
than the heavy equipment of the legions. We may 
be certain that no report of what she really said was 
preserved. 1 But we can well believe that, as Tacitus 

1 Dio makes her harangue her troops at the beginning of the cam- 
paign, and adds a curious incident of her letting loose a hare. The 



54 



BOADICEA. 



tells us, she pointed to her own person, scarred with 
the Roman rods, and to her daughters, who had been 
so shamefully wronged ; that she reminded her country- 
men of the successes which they had already won and 
the vengeance which they had already taken, and 
assured them that their numbers, if only they re- 
membered that they were men, would make them 
irresistible. 

The speech with which Suetonius encouraged his 
men has probably come down to us. Words spoken 
at such a time are not easily forgotten, and there was 
one among his audience who may well have given his 
recollection of this as well as of other events of the 
day to the historian. 1 " Men," he said, pointing to the 
barbarians, "you see more women than soldiers. Un- 
warlike, even unarmed, they will give way the moment 
they see again their conquerors, with those swords 
and that courage which have routed them already so 
often. Even when there are many legions, it is a few 
who really decide the battle. It will enhance your 
glory, if a small force shall earn for itself the glory 
of a whole army. Close up your ranks ; first dis- 
charge your javelins, then with shield and sword 
complete the work of destruction. The victory once 
won, everything will be yours." The speech was 
received with such enthusiasm that Suetonius had no 
doubt of the result, and his confidence was justified. 
Once more the discipline and superior arms of the 

way in which the animal ran was supposed to give an augury of the 
future. He then makes her talk of Nitocris and Semiramis and other 
unlikely persons and things, but apologizes by making her say, ' ' All 
this we have learnt from the Romans." 

1 See p. 59. 



THE BRITONS DEFEATED. 55 

Romans were found irresistible. At first the legion 
kept its place, contenting itself with discharging its 
heavy missiles against the crowded ranks of the 
enemy. Then it advanced in a wedge- like formation, 
breaking through the hostile line. The light-armed 
troops followed, and the cavalry charged from either 
wing. The Britons turned and fled, or would have 
fled but that the waggons blocked the way. A fearful 
massacre followed. Not only the combatants, but the 
women and even the cattle that were harnessed to the 
waggons were indiscriminately slain. It is said that 
as many as eighty thousand of the conquered perished, 
while the victors lost less than a thousand in killed 
and wounded. The British cause was lost. Boadicea 
poisoned herself (one account says that she died of 
disease). The cowardly commander of the Second 
Legion fell upon his sword when he heard of the 
glorious victory in which he and his men might have 
had a share. 

Suetonius did not fail to follow up his victory. 
His army was reinforced from Germany, the Ninth 
Legion, in particular, having its vacant ranks filled up. 
He carried fire and sword over the whole country, 
and reduced it to the utmost distress. Still the 
Britons held out. Suetonius indeed was unrelenting, 
and held out no inducement to surrender. Then 
came dissension among the conquerors. The new 
Civil Governor differed from the general's policy, and 
hampered his action. Nero sent one of his freedmen 
to arrange the dispute. He took sides against Sue- 
tonius, who seems to have been recalled about the end 
of the year (61). 



56 BOADICEA. 

For the next ten years the history of Britain is 
little more than a blank. Three successive com- 
manders, Petronius Turpilianus (62-65), Trebellius 
Maximus (65-69), Vettius Bolanus (69-71), were 
content to protect, as well as they could, the territories 
already acquired. And indeed the military forces at 
their disposal seem to have been greatly diminished. 
The Fourteenth Legion was withdrawn from the island 
by Nero, and fought on Otho's side at the first battle 
of Bedriacum. 1 Vitellius had weakened the three 
other legions by drawing the veterans from their 
ranks. These troops are named among the forces 
which fought for him in the second battle of Bedria- 
cum. 2 The troops that were left must have had 
enough to do. Indeed Tacitus says of them that no 
troops behaved more blamelessly during the whole of 
the civil war.3 Their remote situation had something 
to do, he thinks, with their good conduct, but it was still 
more important that frequent campaigns taught them 
to see their enemies in foreigners, not in their own 
countrymen. We may thus infer, and indeed we are 
expressly told, that the island was not quiet. Tur- 
pilianus seems to have been inactive ; while Trebellius 
made himself so odious by his avarice and other vices 
that he had to fly to the Continent. 

In 71 Vespasian, feeling himself firmly established 

1 The first battle of Bedriacum was fought in 69 between the forces 
of Otho and Vitellius. 

2 Fought in the same year as the first battle, between the forces of 
Vitellius and Vespasian. 

3 The war which began with the murder of Galba in January, 69, 
and ended with the establishment of Vespasian on the throne in the 
December of the same year. 



STATE OF BRITAIN IN A.D. JI. 



57 



on the throne, sent Cerialis, a kinsman of his own, of 
whom we have heard before, to take the command. 
Cerialis, who, as we shall hear in the next chapter, had 
an able lieutenant in Cn. Julius Agricola, conquered a 
considerable portion of the territory of the Brigantes, 
thus advancing the Roman frontiers considerably to 
the northward. In 75 he was succeeded by Julius 
Frontinus, an able general, who found it necessary to 
re-conquer the Silures. Of the successor of Fronti- 
nus I shall speak in the next chapter. 




ROMAN GATES OF CHESTER. 



VII. 



AGRICOLA IN COMMAND. 



In A.D. 78, the Emperor Vespasian, who had him- 
self risen to the throne by merit, and who was keen 
to appreciate it in others, sent Cnaeus Julius Agricola 
to take charge of the province of Britain. A happier 
choice could not have been made. Agricola, whose 
life has been told by his son-in-law, Tacitus the 




COIN OF VESPASIAN. 



historian, in what is, perhaps, the most beautiful of 
ancient biographies, was a great soldier, a wise 
administrator, and a gracious, blameless man. It 
was in Britain that he had seen his first service, 
holding the honorary rank of tribune, and acting as 



THE ORDOVICES. 59 

aide-de-camp x to Suetonius Paulinus in that general's 
expedition to Mona and conflict with Boadicea. Ten 
years afterwards (A.D. 70), he had returned to the 
island, and had commanded the Twentieth Legion 
under the Governors Bolanus and Cerialis with great 
distinction and success. Shortly after the expiration 
of his term of command he had been appointed to 
the government of Aquitania ; 2 which he held for 
between two and three years, winning golden opinions 
by his moderation and integrity. From this he was 
recalled to take up the consulship at Rome. 3 In the 
following year he proceeded, as has been said, to 
Britain. 

He landed in the summer. The Ordovices, a tribe 
occupying the country now known by the name of 
North Wales, had almost destroyed a force of auxiliary 
cavalry stationed in their country. Military affairs in 
the province seem to have been somewhat disorganized, 
and it was doubted whether the new commander would 
immediately avenge this disaster. The summer indeed 
was over before he was in a position to march. Even 
then his force was but small. But he acted with 
vigour and boldness. The Britons kept to their hills, 

1 This word fairly expresses the position of a contubemalis, literally 
a " tent messmate." Young Romans of rank were sent to learn soldier- 
ing under some general of repute. They lived in his quarters, and, if 
they showed any capacity, were employed on staff duties. 

2 Aquitania was a province of Western Gaul, lying between the 
Garonne {Garumna) and the Loire (Liger). The name was corrupted 
into Guienne. 

3 Agricola appears from the Fasti Consulates to have been Consul 
during the latter half of the year 77, the Emperor Vespasian, who had 
held the office from the beginning of the year, himself making way for 
him. 



60 AGRICOLA IN COMMAND. 

but he attacked them on their own ground, and almost 
destroyed the whole tribe. He was now in the near 
neighbourhood of Mona, and resolved to complete the 
conquest of the island, interrupted eighteen years 
before. 1 His plans had been matured in haste, and 
he had no ships in which to transport his army. He 
did not allow this to stop him. He had in his force 
some auxiliaries — probably Batavi from the Lower 
Rhine — who were particularly skilful swimmers. He 
gave orders to these that they were to enter the water 
and cross the channel. The natives, who had not 
imagined that an enemy without boats would venture 
to attack them, were stupefied by his boldness, and 
surrendered without making any attempt at resist- 
ance. 

No special movements of the troops are recorded 
as having taken place in the following year. Agricota 
however, kept his army employed, and continued to 
complete the conquest of the country already over- 
run by the Roman arms. But he was chiefly em- 
ployed in pacifying the conquered people and re- 
dressing their grievances. " The experience of his 
predecessors had taught him," says Tacitus, very 
probably using his own words, " that little could be 
done by war, except the causes of hostile feeling were 
rooted out." The officials employed in the govern- 
ment of the province were put under a severe control. 
No business of importance was entrusted to freedmen 
or slaves, and no promotion was given either to civilian 
or soldier except for merit, while various gross abuses 

1 See p. 49. 



62 AGRICOLA IN COMMAND. 

from which the subject people suffered were abolished. 1 
The Britons were also encouraged to adopt the habits 
of civilization. Their towns began to be adorned 
with temples and other public buildings which, to 
a great degree, were erected at the expense of the 
treasury. The young nobles were educated in the 
Roman learning, and showed, says Tacitus (again, we 
may conjecture, quoting an opinion of his father-in- 
law), a marked superiority in ability over the Gauls. 
They were even initiated into the luxuries of the bath 
and the banquet, and so were taught to reconcile 
themselves to their subject condition. 

The next two summers were spent in extending 
northwards the limits of the Roman dominion, and in 
strengthening its hold upon the conquered country. 
By the end of 81 a line of forts had been constructed 
between the estuaries of the Forth and the Clyde, and 
Britain to the south of that line was to all appear- 
ance reduced to complete submission. 

It may be asked — indeed the historian himself sug- 
gests the question — why was not so wise and humane 
a ruler satisfied with what had been acquired, and 
content to do his best for conquests already made, 
without pushing forwards to new. " The glory of our 
name and the valour of our armies forbade," says 
Tacitus. Rome, in fact, was driven on by the 

1 The tribute, which was levied in money and wheat, had been made 
much more burdensome than was necessary by the exactions of the 
officials. One of their practices was to require the delivery of the speci- 
fied quantity of corn, not at the most accessible depot, but at some 
remote spot to which transport would be very costly. A bribe would 
be demanded before a more convenient arrangement would be sanc- 
tioned. 



IRELAND FIRST MENTIONED IN HISTORY. 63 

necessity which never allows a conquering nation to 
rest. As long as there were neighbours unsubdued, 
there were always fresh provocations, and fresh 
reasons, real or imagined, for hostilities. The armies, 
too, had to be employed. The throne depended upon 
their good will, and it was an universal experience 
that the more constantly they were engaged with 
the enemy, the more quiet and steady was their 
loyalty. 

There was also at work another powerful reason, 
which, as Tacitus expressly tells us. was present to 
the mind of Agricola. In the summer of 82 he had 
sailed across the estuary of the Clyde, and was busy 
subjugating what is now known as the Mull of Can- 
tyre. 1 There he was visited by a petty prince from 
Ireland, which now appears for the first time in 
authentic history. His guest had been driven from 
his throne by some rival kinsmen, and applied to the 
Roman commander for help which might enable him 
to recover it. Agricola was disposed to entertain the 
application, and kept the banished prince with him 
for some time in the hope that an opportunity might 
occur for making him useful. Tacitus continues, " I 
have often heard him say that Ireland could be con- 
quered and held by a single legion and a moderate 
contingent of auxiliaries, and that such a conquest 
would help greatly to consolidate our power in Britain. 
With the arms of Rome everywhere, freedom would 
be, so to speak, out of the sight of its people." It 

1 Tacitus' words are, "That part of Britain which looks towards 
Ireland." This, of course, might be understood of Wigtown, but it 
seems clear that the country north of the Clyde is intended. 



64 AGRICOLA IN COMMAND. 

was thus not only the actual power of the free tribes 
beyond their borders, but the contagious example of 
their liberty that the conquerors feared. Here are to be 
found the motives for the long campaigns, so wasteful 
both of treasure and life, which they fought for the 
possession of the barren mountains of Northern Scot- 
land. 

As my subject is the history of the southern part 
of the island, I will pass very briefly over the remain- 
ing campaigns of Agricola. In 83 he crossed the 
Forth, as he had crossed the Clyde, and gained some 
successes, not, however, without meeting with at least 
one heavy loss in a night attack on one of his legions. 
In the following summer he pushed further to the 
northward and westward, till he met the confederated 
hosts of the Caledonians at a spot now known, it is 
believed, as Murdoch Moor, near the southern spurs 
of the Grampians. 1 The Caledonians were commanded 
by a chieftain whose name is given in the Latinized 
form of Calgacus. Tacitus puts into his mouth a 
splendid piece of invective against the tyranny and 
greed of Rome, while he attributes to Agricola a noble 
and dignified defence of the empire exercised by his 
country. A fierce battle occurred, in which the natives 
displayed a desperate valour, but were unable to make 
head against the superior arms and discipline of their 
antagonists, and suffered a total defeat. As many as 
ten thousand were left dead on the field of battle. 
The Romans lost three hundred and sixty, among 
whom there was only one officer of rank. 

1 Murdoch Moor is in Aberfoyle parish in Perthshire. 



RECALL OF AGKICOLA. 



65 



This great victory brought the career of Agricola 
to a close. He was recalled by the Emperor Domi- 
tian, whose jealousy had been roused by his successes, 
and left the island before the end of the year (84). 




INSCRIPTION FOUND AT CASTLE CARY. 



.<>^ 




VIII. 



THE ROMAN WALLS. 



FOR more than thirty years after the recall of 
Agricola the history of Britain is almost a blank. 
We know that the successor of Agricola was one 
Sallustius Lucullus, and that Domitian, in a fit of 
jealousy, put him to death because he had allowed 
his own name to be given a new pattern of spear- 
head. 1 But the most important passage that bears 
on the subject occurs in Tacitus' brief review of the 
period between the death of Galba and the death of 
Domitian. " Britain," he says, " was thoroughly con- 
quered, and immediately left to itself." The "thorough 
conquest " refers, of course, to the campaign of Agri- 
cola. The word which I have translated by " left to 
itself," has been variously interpreted. Perhaps this 
phrase is too strong, as " abandoned " certainly would 

1 Suetonius, who tells the story, calls him " legate of Britain." 
Legatus, in its strict use, meant an officer who assisted the governor of 
a province. But Tacitus and other writers of the Empire use it as 
equivalent to governor, and so I take it in this passage. 



SOUTHERN BRIT I AN. 



6 7 



be. Tacitus probably does not mean more than that 
after the vigorous action of Agricola the efforts of 
Rome slackened, and the new conquests were neg- 
lected. An allusion in Juvenal completes our scanty 
knowledge. One of the Emperor Domitian's flatterers 
says to him : " You will take prisoner some king, and 
Arviragus the Briton shall be struck down from his 
chariot." It would be safe to infer that Arviragus was 
an enemy of Rome at some time during Domitian's 
reign, but certainly after the recall of Agricola, i.e., 
some time between 84 and 96. But we know nothing 




COIN OF HADRIAN. 

else about him. It is not till the reign of Hadrian 
(1 17-138) that Britain really reappears in history. 

We find now that Southern Britain, roughly speak- 
ing the England of to-day, with which my story is 
especially concerned, 1 has been thoroughly subjugated. 
Whatever disturbances occur hereafter in this part of 
the island until the time when the Romans leave it for 
good come, not from the native tribes, but from the 
legions themselves. Works of peace were briskly 

1 But in later times, when Britain becomes England, the Lowlands of 
Scotland as far as the Firth of Forth are included. 



68 



THE ROMAN WALLS. 



carried on, roads constructed, towns built and enlarged, 
lands reclaimed from the sea. The main business of 
the Roman armies was to protect the province from 
the still unconquered tribes of the north. This was 
chiefly done by the construction of huge walls across 
the island at places where its breadth is least. 

If we look into the map, we see that one such place 
is marked almost exactly by the fifty-fifth parallel of 




THE ROMAN WALL AT KRUNTON. 



N. latitude. The Solway Firth is at the western end ; 
Newcastle-on-Tyne at the eastern. It was here that 
the first wall was built — an enormous work, exceeding 
in magnitude anything of the kind that the Romans 
constructed elsewhere, and so showing the value which 
they set on the province which it was intended to pro- 
tect. It must not be supposed, however, that this huge 
fortification was finished at once. The work of com- 
pleting and strengthening it seems to have been going 



CONSTRUCTION OF THE WALL. 



69 



on for more than eighty years, for an inscription has 
been found, in a quarry which was worked for the 
stone, that gives the names of the consuls for the year 
207. 

It was in 120 that the work was begun. In that 
year the Emperor Hadrian, who had determined to 
see with his own eyes all the provinces of the Empire, 
came to Britain. His policy was to contract rather 
than to extend its boundaries, and he accordingly 
drew the line of fortification far within the limits to 
which the Roman conquests had been pushed. It 
consisted of five parts : — A Trench, a Stone Wall, 




COIN OF HADRIAN. 



Buildings for the Troops, a Rampart of Earth, Roads. 
In this enumeration, it must be remembered, we begin 
from the north. 

1. The Trench. This keeps close to the northern 
side of the wall, though it has been discontinued where 
the wall skirts the edge of a cliff. In such places it 
would have not given any additional strength. Every- 
where else it was drawn uninterruptedly, whatever the 
soil, whether earth or rock. Its dimensions vary. In 
one place its depth is as much as twenty feet ; but 
here the northern edge has been artificially raised by 



yo THE ROMAN WALLS. 

earth thrown up from the excavation. Elsewhere it 
is less than nine. Sometimes it is as much as forty 
feet broad at the top, and fourteen at the bottorn 
The average has been given as " thirty-six feet wide 
and fifteen feet deep." 

2. The Wall. This was seventy-three miles and a 
half in length, from Wall's-End in the east to Bowness 
on the west. It was carefully constructed of stone, 
great pains having been evidently bestowed on using 
the most suitable kinds, which have sometimes been 
brought from a distance. The line which it followed 
was purposely drawn so as to take in the highest 
ground. 1 It has naturally suffered more from the 
effects of time and ravage than the Trench, and, there- 
fore, we are not so certain about its dimensions. The 
Venerable Bede, who lived at J arrow, near to its 
eastern end, says that it was eight feet in breadth and 
twelve in height. Camden, who saw it in 1599, says, 
"fifteen feet in height and nine in breadth." A writer 
about twenty-seven years earlier says, " The height 
remains in some places yet seven yards," and gives 
the breadth at three yards. The breadth, of course, 
is much the same as it was at first. It may be taken, 
on an average, at eight feet, and perhaps we may put 
the average height, as it was, at eighteen. 

3. Buildings for the Troops. These are of the three 
kinds : 

a. Camps [stationes or castra stativa) were con- 
structed at intervals of four miles (on an average) 
along the line of the wall. They were four-cornered, 

1 The highest point is Winshields, where it is as much as a thousand 
feet above the level of the sea. 



72 THE ROMAN WALLS. 

including a space varying from five acres and a half to 
three-quarters of an acre. Each was fortified with a wall 
and trench of its own. Commonly the Great Wall serves 
as the north wall of the camp ; but sometimes the camp 
has a north wall of its own. These must have been 
built before the Great Wall, it may be supposed to 
shelter the troops and workmen who were engaged in 
the work. Three stand at some distance to the south 
These may have been forts built by Agricola. Each 
had four gates, streets crossing each other at right 
angles, after the fashion of Roman camps, and, it 
would seem, suburbs for the camp followers. No 
traces of ornamental building, like the tesselated 
pavements to be seen at Silchester camp, are to be 
discovered. 

b. Mile-castles (castella) were built at average inter- 
vals of a Roman mile * along the wall. Sometimes 
they occur more frequently, when a river or a moun- 
tain pass is traversed, a castle being commonly placed 
to guard the defile. These also are four-cornered, 
measuring fifty feet, or an average, from north to 
south, and sixty from east to west. These were part 
of the wall, being of the same masbnry, and having it 
for their northern defence. They had gates in the 
centre of their northern and southern sides. 

c. Between each mile-castle, four Turrets or Watch- 
Towers were built, standing therefore about three 
hundred feet apart. These may be called sentry- 
boxes. Very little is now left of them, but enough 
to show that they were very strongly built. 

4. The Rampart ( Valium). This fortification con- 

1 A Roman mile measured 1,618 yards. 



MILITARY ROADS. 



73 



sists of a trench and three earthern walls. One of 
these walls stands between the Great Wall and the 
trench ; a second is close upon the southern edge of 
the trench ; the third is as far from it to the south as 
the first is to the north. The first and third are larger 
than the second. Their original dimensions cannot 
be recovered ; but, as they still stand six or seven feet 
high, they were doubtless considerable. A good deal 
of stone has been used in their construction. The 
trench seem to have been somewhat smaller than that 
which was drawn on the north side of the Great Wall. 
The Vallum is not always close to the Wall. It follows 
an easier line of country, whereas, as has been said, 
the wall takes in by choice the most difficult and 
steepest spots. It does not reach along the whole 
length of the Wall, but is about three miles short of it 
at either end. 

5. The Roads. Of these there were two. 

a. A military way ran along the whole length of 
the Wall, between it and the Rampart. It was twenty 
feet wide on an average, and was constructed of 
stone. It did not always keep close to the wall, but 
took the shortest route from one camp to another. It 
was intended, of course, for the rapid and easy trans- 
port of troops and stores from one point of the Wall 
to another, according as they might be needed. 

b. A road ran to the south of both Wall and 
Vallum, and afforded additional accommodation, 
available when hostilities were not actually going on. 

This gigantic work, Wall, Camps, Rampart, and 
Roads (reckoning only the inner way) constituted one 
great camp, which might be used against enemies on 



74 THE ROMAN WALLS. 

either side. For it is not constructed as if the country 
to the south were permanently friendly. There are 
no outlets in the Vallum southward, except by the 
regular gates of the Camps. It must have required 
at least ten thousand men to garrison it, and, doubt- 
less, could have accommodated, on an emergency, 
many more. 

A second line of defence was constructed by 
Antoninus Pius, Hadrian's successor. This ran 
between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde, 
and joined together the line of forts built about sixty 
years before by Agricola. It consisted of a trench, 
which was forty feet wide and twenty deep, and a 
rampart, constructed close to the southern edge of the 
trench, which was twenty feet high and twenty-four 
feet thick. Other forts were built, so that the inter- 
vals between them did not exceed two miles in 
length, and it was arranged that each should be in 
sight of its next neighbour. On the southern side of 
the rampart was a platform for the soldiers, and be- 
hind this again ran a military way, twenty feet wide. 
Some remains of this work are still to be seen. 
They are known by the name of " Graham's Dyke." 
The Vallum Antonini, as it is called, was built by 
Lollius Urbicus between 140 and 145. Urbicus com- 
manded the forces in Britain for twenty years, and 
pushed the Roman conquests in Northern Britain as 
far as the Moray Firth. Of the events of the next 
fifty years we know very little, though we hear of an 
inroad of the northern tribes, who broke through the 
rampart of the Upper Isthmus, 1 and were with diffi- 

1 That between the Forth and the Clyde. 






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ROMAN MILITARY ALTAR. 



76 THE ROMAN WALLS. 

culty repelled by the General Ulpius Marcellus. This 
was in the year 184, under the reign of Commodus, 
the vicious successor of the philosophic Aurelius. 

The history of Clodius Albinus, the successor of 
Marcellus in the command of the British armies, shows 
the growing importance of Britain among the pro- 
vinces of the Empire. It was to Rome, what India 
has been to itself in recent times, the " nursery 
of captains." No legions had more active employ- 
ment, no generals had better opportunities of dis- 
tinguishing themselves, and winning the confidence 
of their troops. Albinus became so important a 
person that the Emperor Commodus offered him the 
title of Caesar. 1 The honour was declined, and Albinus 
soon after lost the favour of Commodus by denoun- 
cing him as a tyrant. He was superseded in his 
command, but was strong enough to keep it in spite 
of the Emperor. Septimius Severus, who came to the 
throne in 193, again offered him the title of Caesar. 
This time it was accepted. But Severus only meant 
to deceive a rival with whom he did not feel himself 
at the moment strong enough to contend. His first 
idea was to get rid of him by assassination, for he 
sent very kindly letters by the hand of messengers 
who had secret instructions to demand a private 
audience of the general and to stab him to the heart. 
The plot failed, but Albinus saw that he must fight for 
his life. He crossed over to the mainland, taking with 
him a part of his army, and encountered Severus near 
Lugdunum (Leyden). In the battle that followed the 

1 This would mean a rank which may be described as "Vice- 
Emperor," and it would imply the right of succession to the throne. 



SEVERUS VISITS BRITAIN. 



77 



British legions maintained their high reputation. At 
one moment it seemed likely that Severus would be 
defeated. But he rallied his troops, and the day 
ended with a decisive victory for him. Albinus was 
captured and put to death. He was the first, as we 
shall see, of a long line of pretenders to the throne, 
who mostly came to a violent end. 

Early in 208 Severus himself visited the island 
The northern tribes had continued to trouble the 
peace of the settled province, and he was resolved to 
punish them, and not sorry, at the same time, to 





COIN OF ANTONINUS PIUS. 

employ his army and the two young princes, his sons, 
in active service. He marched accordingly north- 
wards, and reached, it is said, the very extremity of 
the island. The natives did not attempt to meet him 
in the field, but they laid ambuscades, and harassed 
the rear and flanks of his army. The hardships and 
difficulties of the expedition were enormous. We 
can imagine what a place the Highlands of Scotland 
must have been for a regular army to traverse when 
there were no roads, and the country was largely 
covered with forest. The labours of the march, and of 



78 THE ROMAN WALLS. 

the works in the way of bridges and causeways that 
had to be constructed, the wet and the cold, for the 
expedition was prolonged into the winter, caused a 
terrible mortality among the troops. When at last 
the Caledonians begged for peace, delivering up some 
of their arms and yielding a portion of their territory, 
Severus had lost as many as fifty thousand men. 
And he had gained nothing. No sooner was the 
legion withdrawn to the south than the native tribes 
again rebelled. Severus, who was then at Eboracum 
(York) swore that he would exterminate them, and 
began to prepare for a new expedition. He did not 
live to fulfil this purpose. He had suffered greatly 
from illness during the expedition, and his malady 
now increased upon him, being aggravated, it is 
said, by the ill behaviour of his son, Caracalla. He 
died at Eboracum in 210. The permanent memorial 
that he left behind him of his stay in Britain was the 
strengthening of the Vallum Antonini by a second 
wall. We may assign to this period the height of the 
Roman dominion in Britain. Its extent and the 
provinces into which it was subdivided are exhibited 
in Map I. 



IX. 

THE TYRANTS. 

The middle of the third century was a period of 
great depression in the Roman Empire, and the reign 
of Gallienus (260-268) marks its lowest point. This 
prince had been associated by his father, Valerian, in 
the Empire. In 260 Valerian was conquered and put 
to death by the Parthian king, Sapor, and his death 
was the signal for frightful disorders. A number of 
pretenders, to whom the historians of the next century 
gave the name of " The Thirty Tyrants," * started up 
in various provinces of the East and West. Several 
of these usurpers rose to power in Gaul, and these 
seem to have included Britain in the dominions which 
they acquired and lost in rapid succession. The rise 
of the first of these, Latinius Postumus, dates indeed 
from before the fall of Valerian. He had been ap- 
pointed by that emperor to defend the Rhine frontier, 
had taken offence at some slight, and proclaimed his 
independence. This he maintained for nine years. 
In 267 he was overthrown by one Laelianus. Lae- 

1 The original " Thirty Tyrants " were a committee of thirty members 
which ruled at Athens when the democratic government of that State 
was for a time (404 B.C.) changed into an oligarchy. 



80 THE TYRANTS. 

lianus was slain by his own soldiers in the same year. 
Victorinus, who succeeded him, fell a victim to private 
vengeance in the year following. His mother, Vic- 
toria, succeeded him in his power, but handed it over 
first to one Marius, an armourer, and then, when 
Marius had gone the way of his predecessors, to Caius 
Tetricus. After Tetricus had held power for three 
years, Aurelian, a vigorous soldier, worthy of the best 
days of Rome, conquered him. It seems indeed that 
Tetricus was not unwilling to be conquered, and that 
he betrayed his army to his opponent. It is certain 
that his fate was very different from that commonly 
reserved for unsuccessful usurpers. He and his son 
were exhibited indeed in Aurelian's triumph, but they 
were afterwards treated with kindness and even dis- 
tinction. The father lived to an advanced age in 
retirement ; the son was promoted to high offices in 
the state. It is certain, however, that during their 
period of power the island ceased to be part of the 
Roman Empire. Many of their coins have been 
found, and those of Tetricus are very common among 
Romano-British remains. 

Britain, recovered by Aurelian, did not remain long 
in its allegiance. For some time its southern and 
eastern shores, as well as the northern shore of Gaul, 
had been exposed to the ravages of pirates, who 
issued from the harbours of the North Sea, and pos- 
sibly even of the Baltic— the first-comers of the 
swarms of invaders who, under the names of Franks, 
Saxons, Danes, and Normans, were to work such a 
change on the face of Northern and Western Europe, 
and even to make themselves felt as far as Constanti- 




ROMAN VASE OF DARK BROWN CAISTOR WARE. 

[From the original in the British J/useum.) 



82 THE TYRANTS. 

nople in the East. It was found necessary to have 
a fleet to keep these marauders in check, and the 
officer who had the command of it, and whose special 
task it was to protect the British and Gallic coasts, 
bore the title of " Count of the Saxon Shore." * The 
Count had his head-quarters at Gessoriacum, or 
Bononia, now called Boulogne, as a convenient place 
for protecting the entrance to the Channel. In 287 
a certain Carausius held this office, by the appoint- 
ment of Maximianus, colleague of Diocletian in the 
Empire. Indeed, it seems likely that he was the first 
to hold it. 

Carausius was a native of the country now known 
as Holland. He had risen from the ranks by his 
ability and courage, and his ambition was still un- 
satisfied. He made use of his new office to further 
it. If the writers attached to the cause of his enemies 
are to be believed — and we know nothing about his 
actions and character except from them — he made 
compacts with the pirates by which they were per- 
mitted to pass westward on condition of giving him 
a part of their gains. By the wealth thus gained he 
strengthened his position, making alliances with bar- 
barian tribes, and equipping his fleet in the most 
effective manner. When he openly rebelled we can- 

1 It is not a little puzzling to be told that a part of the coast derived 
its name from the tribes which were in the habit of ravaging it. It has 
been suggested that some at least of its inhabitants, especially in Gaul, 
were Saxon. But the matter is obscure, and to discuss it wou'd take 
me too far from the purpose of this volume. It may be sufficient to 
quote Gibbon's note : " Aurelius Victor calls them Germans. Eu- 
tiopius gives them the name of Saxons. But Eutropius lived in the 
ensuing century, and seems to use the language of his own time." 



FRESH EXPEDITION TO BRITAIN. 



83 



not say, but it is certain that he was independent in 
the year 287. 

Diocletian and his colleagues had already so much 
on their hands that they could not deal with this new 
trouble. For some years Carausius was left alone, 
and even recognized as an additional colleague by 
the emperors. But when Constantius, a vigorous 
young soldier, was raised to the rank of Caesar x 
(March 11, 291), an effort was made to recover the 
province of Britain. An orator of the time speaks 
of its fertile fields, its rich mines, its convenient 




COIN OF CARAUSIUS. 



harbours, with an idea, doubtless, of magnifying the 
prince who had recovered it, but, of course, not with- 
out some foundation of truth. Anyhow, it was thought 
worthy of an expedition. Constantius set about his 
task with such speed that his arrival on the field of 
action was altogether unexpected. He began by 
besieging Bononia, which the naval and land forces 
of Carausius held in force. The mouth of the 
harbour was blocked up, and the place, which Carau- 

1 The arrangement of Diocletian was that there should be tv o 
Augusti and two Caesars, who may be described as emperors and vice 
emperors. 



84 THE TYRANTS. 

sius was unable to relieve with his fleet, surrendered. 
Constantius was obliged to be content with this 
success. He had no ships with which to cross over 
into Britain. This want, however, seems to have 
been supplied during the winter, for the next year 
(292) he actually started for the island. Bad weather, 
however, drove him back, and the expedition had to 
be abandoned. Whether Carausius was again acknow- 
ledged by the Augusti we do not know. In the fol- 
lowing year he was murdered by one of his lieutenants, 
Allectus by name, who assumed the title of Augustus. 
For three years Allectus seems to have been left 
alone, though it is difficult to form any definite idea 
of what happened from the very unsatisfactory nar- 
ratives that have come down to us. 1 In 297 Con- 
stantius made another effort to recover Britain. The 
forces of the expedition seem to have been divided 
into two parts, one under the command of an officer 
named Asclepiodotus, the other led by Constantius 
himself. The fleet of Allectus was posted near the 
island of Vectis (Isle of Wight) to intercept the 
invaders. Asclepiodotus passed it unobserved in a 
fog, landed in Britain, and to make retreat impossible, 
burnt his ships. 2 Constantius, with the other detach- 



1 One writer in Smith's "Dictionary of Classical Biography " speaks 
of Allectus having been subdued " after a struggle of three years " (Art. 
Constantius) ; another (Art. Allectus), of the army and fleet of Con- 
stantius having been sent against him at the end of three years. The 
latter is the impression left on my mind by the language of a contem- 
porary writer, the author of the Panegyric on Maximian and 
Constantius. 

2 So the Panegyrist quoted above asserts, but the statement has an 
improbable look. 



A BLANK IN HISTORY. 85 

ment, also made his way to the island unhindered. 
Allectus, in flying from him, encountered Asclepio- 
dotus, and was defeated and slain. Some of the 
vanquished army, which, we are told, consisted largely 
of Franks, made their way to Londinium, and were 
busy in plundering it, when Constantius arrived with 
his troops and drove them away. Britain was thus 
restored to the Empire. The Panegyrist tells us that 
one happy result of this event was that the Frankish 
pirates, whom Carausius and Allectus had made no 
effort to check, intent, as they probably were, on 
maintaining their own position, were no longer per- 
mitted to ravage the western coasts of Europe. 

Constantius spent much of the remainder of his life 
in Britain. In 309, on the abdication of Diocletian 
and Maximian, he succeeded to the rank of Augustus, 
and in the following year (July 25th) he died at 
Eboracum, when he was preparing to start on an 
expedition against the northern tribes. It was at 
Eboracum that his son Constantine, 1 the first Christian 
Emperor, was proclaimed Augustus. 

We know very little about the history of the island 
during the next hundred years ; but the little that has 
been recorded show that the causes which had led to 
the usurpation of Carausius, the remoteness of the 
province and the weakness of the central authority, 
were still in active operation. In fact, we are told 
little by the historians beyond the names of successive 
usurpers. When Magnentius was proclaimed Emperor 

1 Constantine was the son of Constantius by his first wife Helena. 
Helena has often been spoken of as a Br tish princess. She really was 
the daughter of a tavern-keeper at Antioch. 



86 THE TYRANTS. 

in 350, Britain formed part of his dominions, and it 
passed again into the hands of the home authorities 
at his fall three years later. Paullus, surnamed Catena, 
a notary of the Court, was sent by Constantius II. to 
regulate its affairs, after the repression of the re- 
bellion, and is said to have been guilty of many 
exactions and cruelties. 

Meanwhile the northern tribes had been growing 
more and more troublesome. The Emperor Constans 
(337-350) is said to have marched against them, but 
we know nothing beyond the bare fact. Constantius 
II. (337-361) sent another force against them towards 
the end of his reign. No permanent success was 
attained Their attacks became more formidable, and 
the Roman forces suffered several defeats. In 369, how- 
ever, Vabntinian I. sent into the island Theodosius, 
one of the ablest of his generals. The Picts and 
Scots (for by these two names the northern tribes 
were chiefly known) seem by this time to have pene- 
trated to the very south of the island. Theodosius 
encountered them several times on his way from the 
coast to London. This town, which had been in 
danger of capture, received him very gladly. After 
some time spent in settling the affairs of the country, 
he marched northwards, fought two campaigns against 
the tribes, and drove them beyond the barrier of 
Antoninus. The country lying between this and the 
Great Wall was organized into a province, and received 
the name of Valentia. 1 

1 It is probably a poetical exaggeration in Claudian, when he talks of 
Thule and the Orcades (Shetland and Orkney) being stained with 
Pictish blood. It is very unlikely that Theodosius pushed his conquests 
so far. 



DEFEAT AND DEATH OF MAXIM US. 87 

In 383 the armies of the West rose against Gratianus, 
who had offended them, not only by neglecting the 
affairs of the State for the pleasures of the chase, 
but by choosing barbarian guards and even wearing 
barbarian dress. They offered the purple to Maximus, 
who was living in retirement in Britain, and who is said 
by some to have belonged to a noble family of the 
island. Maximus (whom the contemporary poet 
Ausonius speaks of as " the brigand of Rutupiae ") 
crossed over into Gaul, and marched against Gratianus, 
who was killed on Aug. 23 near Lugdunum (Lyons). 
Theodosius I., son of the Theodosius who has been 
previously mentioned, was now in possession of the 
eastern part of the Empire, and Valentinian II. was 
the colleague of his elder brother Gratianus in the 
West. These two princes did not feel themselves 
strong enough to attack Maximus, who was permitted 
to retain possession of Western Europe for four years. 
In 387 he attempted to add Italy to his dominions. At 
first he was successful, for Valentinian fled to Thessa- 
lonica. But in 388 Theodosius, who had taken up the 
cause of the fallen emperor, invaded Italy, and 
defeated Maximus in two battles. Maximus fled 
across the Alps, was captured at Aquileia, and put to 
death by the soldiers. 

About six years later we hear of the great general 
Stilicho winning victories over the Picts in Britain. 
It seems, however, probable that he never actually 
landed in the island, but that the report of his 
approach was sufficient to make the invaders retreat. 

Early in the next century we hear of a certain 
Marcus being proclaimed emperor by the soldiers 



88 THE TYRANTS. 

of Britain, of his being succeeded very soon by a 
Gratianus, who is described as a " townsman of 
Britain," of Gratianus himself being assassinated 
after a reign of four months, and of being succeeded 
by a Constantinus. Constantinus is said to have been 
a common soldier at the time of his elevation, and 
to have owed it to the accident of his name. He 
appears, however, to have been a man of some ability, 
or, anyhow, to have had able advisers about him. In 
408 he crossed over into Gaul, and established his 
power over that country and Spain. He was even 
recognized as Augustus by Honorius, then Emperor 
of the West, but did not maintain his position for 
more than two or three years. 

The removal of the troops from Britain by Con- 
stantinus the Usurper was probably the real end of the 
Roman occupation of the island. Three years after- 
wards (410) Honorius addressed a rescript to the 
" Cities of Britain " by which he relaxed the Julian 
Law against the carrying of weapons, and commanded 
the Britons to defend themselves. Still Britain was 
formally recognized as one of the provinces of the 
Empire. As late as 537 Belisarius granted it to the 
Goths in the name of the Emperor. In fact, however, 
it had long passed out of Roman power. In 446 the 
Britons, pressed hard by the Saxon invaders, begged 
for help from Aetius, the great general who held 
Attila in check ; but the request was refused. Britain 
had now to shift for herself; to tell how she fared is 
my next business. 

Before I pass to it, however, the question, What did 
the Romans leave behind them in Britain ? may be 



INFLUENCE OF THE ROMANS ON BRITAIN. 89 

very briefly answered, or rather noticed, for to answer 
it is impossible. The fact is that few matters in the 
region of history are more obscure. One thing is 
tolerably plain, that there has been no continuity of 
Roman life in this country such as may be traced in 
Italy, in Spain, in France. Each of these countries 
has been swept, and swept many times, by invasion, 
but there has always remained an element of popula- 
tion strong enough to keep up the continuity of life. 
Perhaps the languages of the Latin countries as they 
are called as compared with English affords the most 
significant illustration. There is a large Latin 
element in English, not speaking, of course, of that 
which it inherits together with Latin from a common 
ancestor. But this element is of later introduction. 
In Early English it may almost be said not to exist. 
In the languages of Italy, Spain, and France, this 
Latin element occupies a quite different position ; it 
is the foundation of them, not an alien element. 

There are two other questions, both closely con- 
nected with this, which have been debated with 
no little vehemence. How far did the Romans 
influence the life of the British population ? How 
far did the British population survive the English 
invasion ? If we believe that the Britons were 
annihilated by the invaders then it is easy also to 
believe that they had been thoroughly Romanized. 
If, on the other hand, a considerable element survived, 
then we should expect to find a larger trace of 
Roman influence in the life of early England. 

On one point we can speak with certainty. The 
Roman occupation of the island was complete. The 




ROMAN TESSELATED PAVEMENT. 



{The finest specimen yet discovered in England. The dark portion is 
the original the light portion is the restored.) 



BIGNOR AND CHEDWORTH. 



91 



remains of their houses, their camps, their worship, 
their domestic life, literally abound. 1 Nor was this 
occupation simply military. It is sufficient, for proof 
of this, to point to the remains of such houses as are 
to be seen at Bignor (near Chichester), and Chedworth 
in Gloucestershire. It is clear that wealthy Romans 
took up their abode in this island ; and wealthy men 
do not live in a country that is not thoroughly settled. 
But how far their influence touched the native popula- 
tion remains, and probably must remain, unknown. 

1 Any one who wants a proof of this should study Mr. G. L. 
Gomme's " Romano- British Remains." Two volumes are filled with 
accounts of the discoveries of Roman remains. And this is only a 
selection. Probably, too, a great number of discoveries have never 
been recorded at all. 




ROMAN RUINS, LINCOLN. 



X. 

THE ENGLISH CONQUEST. 

In speaking of Britain before the Romans, I made 
no mention of the legend in which Brutus, the great- 
grandson of iEneas, is said to have given his name 
to Britain. Widely believed as it was in the Middle 
Ages, it is manifestly a fable from beginning to end. 
We cannot say the same of the legend whCih has 
for its hero — perhaps I should rather say its chief 
character — Vortigern, the betrayer of Britain. This, 
it can scarcely be doubted, has at least the basis of 
truth. There is no reason for disbelieving in the 
existence of a Vortigern. This legend, then, I 
shall therefore briefly tell before passing on to the 
history. 

The Legend of Vortigern. 

" Vortigern, King of Kent, seeing that the Picts 
troubled him by land and the Saxons by sea, thought 
to himself, ' I shall do well if I can set these robbers 
the one against the other.' So he spake to one 
Hengist, their chief. ' Let us make alliance to- 
gether:' and to this Hengist consented, and he made 



THE LEGEND OF VORTIGERN. 93 

a feast to which he called King Vortigern. Now 
Hengist had. a daughter Rowena, who was exceeding 
fair, and the maiden stood at the board and served 
the king with mead. When the king looked upon 
her, he loved her ; and he said to Hengist, for his 
reason had gone from him, ' Give me the maid to 
wife, and I will give you the kingdom of Kent' To 
this Hengist consented ; but the nobles of the land 
would not have the stranger to rule over them. 
Therefore they put down Vortigern from his place, 
and made Vortimei his son king in his stead. And 
Vortimer fought against Hengist and the Saxons ; 
three times he fought against them, till he drove them 
out of the land. Then for five years Hengist 
wandered over the sea in his ships. But when the 
five years were past, Vortimer died, and Vortigern 
was made king as he had been before. Thus said 
Hengist to him, ' Give me the kingdom, according 
to your promise.' Vortigern answered him, ' Let 
me ask counsel of my nobles.' So the nobles as- 
sembled themselves three hundred in all, and for 
every British noble there was also a Saxon chief. 
But as they sat together, Hengist cried aloud, ' Draw 
your daggers ! ' and as he spake, each Saxon smote 
the Briton that sat by his side, and slew him. So 
the three hundred fell in one day all save King 
Vortigern, for him they spared by command of 
Hengist. And after this the strangers held the land 
without further question." 

When we pass from legend to history, we find our- 
selves in what may be called a kind of twilight. It 
is not wholly dark, but the light is dim ; it shows 



94 THE ENGLISH CONQUEST. 

only a few great facts that are unquestionably true, 
perhaps a few figures that are the figures of men who 
really lived. 

The first coming of the English is assigned to the 
year 449. " Hengist and Horsa, invited by Vortigern, 
King of the Britons, sought Britain ; first in support of 
the Britons, but afterwards they fought against them." 
These are the words of the shortest and, we may sup- 
pose, the earliest form of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 
A longer form gives us some more particulars, the 
truth of which there is no reason for doubting, that 
the reason why King Vortigern asked the help of the 
two chiefs, leaders as they were of a people that had 
harried the shores of Britain for centuries, was, that 
they might help him against the Picts, and that they 
came with three ships, and that they were rewarded 
for their service with land in the south-east of the 
island. Further on it adds that these first-comers 
were Jutes, dwellers, i.e., in the country which is still 
known by the name of Jutland. Both forms of the 
Chronicle give the name of the place were Hengist 
and Horsa landed as "Yp wines fleot," or "Heopwines 
fleot." There is little difficulty in making out that 
this is Ebbsfleet, near Ramsgate, in the district which 
is still called the Isle of Thanet, and which was then 
separated from the mainland by a channel, navigable 
at high water by ships, and at low water to be crossed 
only by a single ford. 

For some years Vortigern's new friends were con- 
tent to remain in the place which had been allotted 
to them. At first, indeed, they were not strong 
enough to venture upon any other course. The 



HENGIST AND HORSA. 95 

crews of three ships, even if these were of the largest 
size, could scarcely have numbered more than five 
hundred men, and so small a force did not think it 
worth their while to turn against those who fed and 
paid them. Meanwhile they were growing stronger. 
"They sent, 1 ' says the Chronicler, "to the Angles; 
and bade them be told of the worthlessness of the 
Britons, and the richness of the land." And the 
writer goes on to describe how there came men 
from the three tribes of Germany, from the Old 
Saxons, the Angles, and the Jutes. Doubtless this 
refers, as far as its mention of the Old Saxons and 
Angles is concerned, to a later time ; but we may feel 
sure that a report of the good land on which they 
had settled, and of the ease with which it might be 
won, was carried across the sea to their kinsman in 
Jutland. Six years after their first landing they were 
strong enough to move. When we next hear of 
them they are some way from the Isle of Thanet, of 
which the westward boundary is the Stour. In 455, 
11 Hengist and Horsa fought with Vortigern the 
King on the spot that is called Aylesford." z The 
battle, we may guess, was fiercely contested, for 
Horsa was slain. " Hengist afterwards took to the 
kingdom with his son Esc." Two years afterwards 
we hear of another battle. By this time the invaders 
have made their way still further westward, for 
" Hengist and Esc fought with the Britons on the spot 
that is called Crayford, 2 and there slew four thousand 
men." The battle ended in a decisive victory for the 

1 Aylesford is on the Med way about four miles below Maidstone. 

2 The Cray is a little stream which falls into the Darent. 



g6 THE ENGLISH CONQUEST. 

Jutes. " The Britons then forsook the land of Kent, 
and in great consternation fled to London." We 
shall find London serving again and again as a safe 
shelter when the descendants of these invaders were 
themselves invaded from the sea. 

Then, if the chronicles of the British may be 
trusted, came a change of fortune. The unlucky 
prince, who had called in these dangerous allies to 
his help, and was now unable to resist them, was 
overthrown by another enemy, Aurelius Ambrosianus, 
a Roman by descent. Aurelius, having conquered 
his rival, turned his arms against the invaders, and 
drove them back into the territory which they had 
first occupied. For the eight years between 457 and 
465 the Chronicle is a blank. Then comes the record 
of another battle, fought at a place called " Wippeds- 
fleet," from the name of a Jutish chief, who fell 
there. It ended in a complete victory for the 
invaders. " This year Hengist and Horsa fought 
with the Welsh, 1 nigh Wippedsfleet ; and there slew 
twelve leaders, all Welsh." After another great 
interval of silence, came in 473 the record of another 
great victory. "This year Hengist and Esc fought 
with the Welsh, and took immense booty. And the 
Welsh fled from the Endish like fire." Then was 

o 

founded the first of the English kingdoms, Kent. 
Hengist is said to have ruled it until the year 479, 
and to have been succeeded by his son Esc, from 
whom the line of Kentish princes received the title 
of Escings. 

1 Welsh means " foreigner"; the invaders, by a strange yet common 
figure of speech, calling the native people " foreigners." 



THE WOOD CALLED " ANDREDSWEALD." 97 

If this date be correct, the first German conqueror 
was still alive when the second came across the sea to 
attack another part of the island. In 477 "came Ella 
to Britain with his three sons, Cymen, and Wlenking, 
and Cissa, in three ships, landing at a place that is 
called Cymen's-ora. There they slew many of the 
Welsh ; and some in flight they drove into the wood 
that is called Andredsweald." Ella was a Saxon, 
and in him we have the first of another of the three 
German tribes, which were to join in the making 
of England. When we first hear of the Saxons 1 they 
must have been near neighbours of the Jutes, for they 
are described as dwelling in the country now known 
as Holstein. But between that time and the date of 
their first coming to Britain they must have shifted 
their quarters southward and westward to the region 
occupied by Oldenburg and Hanover. Their wander- 
ings in search of plunder — for these, it will be re- 
membered, were the rovers against whom the Count 
of the Saxon Shore 2 had to defend the coasts of 
Britain and Gaul — took them far afield; and they 
seem to have made settlements along the southern 
coasts of the North Sea and even of the Channel. 
The growing power of the Franks, driving them back 
to their old boundaries, may have been one of the 
causes which led to their following the example of 
their Jutish kinsmen. 

The Welsh, who fled into the " great wood that is 
called Andredsweald," made a stubborn resistance. 
The region was then, as it became again long after- 

1 In the second century of our era, from the geographer Ptolemy. 

2 See p. 82. 



g8 THE ENGLISH CONQUEST. 

wards, the scene of a busy manufacture of iron, 1 and the 
natives were a sturdy race and plentifully supplied with 
arms. They had, too, in Anderida 2 a strong fortress 
built by those skilful engineers the Romans. In 485 
"Ella fought with the Welsh nigh Mercred's-Burn- 
sted," a spot which we may identify with Lye. The 
Chronicler does not claim a victory for his countrymen. 
Anyhow, five years more were to pass before the work 
was completed. In 490 " Ella and Cissa besieged the 
city Andred, and slew all that were therein ; nor was 
one Briton left there afterwards." " They so destroyed 
the place," writes a chronicler nearly eight centuries 
later, " that it was never afterwards rebuilt ; only the 
site, as of a very fair city, is to be seen, utterly 
desolate, by those that pass by." Sussex, the land of 
the South Saxons, was the second of the English 
kingdoms. 

The dates of the other settlements of the invaders 
cannot be fixed with even such probability as we are 
able to attain in the two cases already mentioned. It 
will be convenient to speak first of those which were 
made by the Saxons properly so called. 

Under the year 495 the Chronicler writes : " This 
year came two leaders into Britain, Cerdic and 
Cynric, his son, with five ships, at a place that is 
called Cerdic's-ore.3 And they fought with the Welsh 

1 The Sussex iron works continued in operation till nearly the close 
of the seventeenth century. After that date the trade was transferred 
to the coal districts of Midland and Northern England. The iron 
railings that surround St. Paul's Cathedral in London were manufactured 
at Sussex forges. 

2 From Pevensey about four miles eastward of Eastbourne. 

3 The mouth of the Itchen, now Southampton. 



THE WEST SAXONS IN BRITAIN. 99 

that same day." Six years afterwards he tells us how 
one Porta and his two sons landed at a place that is 
now called Portsmouth, and then again, after an 
interval of seven years, Cerdic and Cynric reappear in 
the record that they "slew a British king whose name 
was Natan-leod, and five thousand men with him." 
Whether or no Netley, near Southampton, was really 
called after this British prince, as the Chronicler 
asserts, the mention of this place marks the scene of 
the conflict. It was so near the spot where the two 
Saxon chiefs had landed twelve years before that we 
may safely conclude that in the interval the invaders 
had made but little progress. Indeed six years after- 
wards we hear how the " West Saxons came into 
Britain with three ships," at the very place — Cerdic's- 
ore — where they are said to have landed at their first 
coming. But this time they had new allies with them. 
" Stuf and Wihtgar fought with the Britons and put 
them to flight." Stuf and Wihtgar were Jutes, and 
they ultimately received as the price of their help the 
Isle of Wight and a portion of territory on the main- 
land. 1 During the five years which the Chronicler 
passes over in silence a fierce conflict was doubtless 
being waged between the West Saxons and the native 
tribes. We are told only of its end. Under the year 
521 we read : " This year Cerdic and Cynric under- 
took the government of the West Saxons ; the same 



1 Bede, in his "Ecclesiastical History," i. 15, says "Of Jutish 
race are the men of Canterbury and the men of Vectis (Vectuarii), that 
is, the race which inhabits the island of Vectis, and that which up to 
this very time, in the provinces of the West Saxons, is called Jutland, 
lying over against the island of Vectis." 



100 THE ENGLISH CONQUEST. 

year they fought with the Britons at a place now 
called Charford." * 

The Chronicler is as unwilling as historians have 
commonly shown themselves to record defeats, and 
we have to gather from other sources the true story of 
what followed the battle of Charford. The West 
Saxons {Gezvissas as they appear to have been called) 
pursued their conquests in the region now know as 
Hampshire and Somersetshire. But in the next year 
they met with a decisive defeat, which for a time 
checked their northward progress. The Britons met 
them at Badon Hill (near Bath), and inflicted on them 
a crushing defeat. It is in this battle that the great 
British champion, Arthur, seems to come for an instant 
out of the darkness with which he is surrounded. 
The fight at Badon Hill is the one event in his long 
struggle with the invaders which seems historical. 
We hear, too, of details of the conflict which may 
indeed be due to the fancy of the bards who sang in 
after-days of the glories of the great national hero, 
but have a certain look of reality. The Britons, we 
are told, occupied the upper part of the hill, the 
Saxons with their host, formed like a wedge, stood 
below. For the whole of the first day the heathen 
host remained firm ; on the second, the desperate 
valour of Arthur and his people broke through the 
lines, and for a time Western Britain was saved. 

Whatever may be the truth about Badon Hill, it is 
certain that for some time after their victory of Char- 
ford Cerdic and his Saxons made no further advance 

1 Charford is on the Lower Avon, and about ten miles south of 
Salisbury. 



THE ANGLES. 101 

inland. We hear indeed of their righting one battle 
at Cerdic's Ceal in 527; and three years afterwards 
we find them subduing the Isle of Wight and handing 
it over to the two Jutish chiefs. 1 The death of Cerdic 
is assigned to the year 534, and his son is said to have 
succeeded him, and to have reigned for twenty-seven 
years over the kingdom of the West Saxons, or 
Wessex. 

Two smaller settlements of the same tribe, it must 
be sufficient to mention, as we know nothing about 
the time of their making or the manner in which they 
were made. London, which had resisted the advance 
of the Jutish conquerors of Kent, seems to have fallen 
before the attack of some Saxon invaders, who after- 
wards, from their inland position, received the name 
of the Middle Saxons, a name still preserved in 
Middlesex. To the north and east of them, in the 
region now called Essex, yet another colony from the 
same stock, the East Saxons, ' found a habitation. 
Both states remained small and unimportant. 

The third great stock of the German conquerors of 
Britain was the most important of the three, if we may 
judge from the fact that it ultimately gave its name 
to the island. The Celtic populations among us speak 
indeed of their Teutonic neighbours as Saxons, but 
the land of the English, the Angles, is the name by 
which the country is known in history and to the 
world in general. Yet, curiously enough, we know 
less of the Angles than we do either of the Jutes or 

1 Stuf and Wihtgar are described as " nephews " of Cerdic. If this 
be so Cerdic must have married a Jutish wife. This is an easy way of 
accounting for the alliance of the two tribes. 



102 THE ENGLISH CONQUEST. 

the Saxons. Tacitus indeed mentions the Angli, 
with other tribes, as dwelling in a remote and in- 
accessible region, but gives no particulars. Fifty 
years afterwards, Ptolemy speaks of them as inhabiting 
part of the left bank of the Elbe. Later on, we find 
them located in the Cimbric peninsula, 1 between the 
Jutes and the Saxons. It is from this country that 
Bede speaks of them as migrating when they followed 
their neighbours to Britain, and this in such numbers 
that their original country was left wholly without 
inhabitants. 2 There is still a corner of land called 
Angelis in Sleswick, lying a little to the north of the 
harbour of Kiel. But there are writers of no small 
authority who hold that there was no real difference 
between Angles and Saxons. It is certain indeed that 
they were closely related ; but for the purpose of the 
present volume it will suffice to accept the commonly 
received division, and to speak of the Angles as the 
third, and probably the strongest, of the three stocks. 
Of the conquest of the Angles we know little 
beyond the results. North of the East Saxons and 
south of the Wash was a region in which, as we have 
reason for thinking, some German settlers had already 
taken up their abode. This was occupied by one 
colony of Angles which afterwards divided itself into 
two portions, respectively called the North and South 
Folk. 3 The first king of the East Angles is said to 

1 By the " Cimbric peninsula" is meant the projecting piece of land 
containing Holstein, Sleswick, and Jutland. 

2 It is curious to find Bede speaking of this country as " vetus Anglia," 
Old England. We have in this a still older England than the country 
which now commonly bears the name. 

3 Norfolk and Suffolk. 



THE KINGDOM OF NORTH UMBRIA. IOJ 

have been one Uffa, who gave his name to a line of 
princes known as Ufifings. 

North of the Wash was the country once dominated 
by the Roman colony of Lindum. 1 Lindum was no 
more able to hold out against the invaders than 
London had been. But the new-comers took their 
name from the stronghold which they had conquered, 
and called themselves Lindiswaras, a name still pre- 
served in the Lindsey district of Lincolnshire. Se- 
parate at first, the Lindiswaras afterwards were joined 
to East Anglia. 

Between the Humber and the Forth was another 
region which fell by degrees, during the latter part of 
the fifth and the first half of the sixth century, into the 
hands of the Angles. The long range of unprotected 
coast was first occupied by them, and they gradually 
extended their conquests inland. Eboracum 2 shared 
the fate of London and Lindum. The whole of this 
country may be described by the general name of 
Northumbria. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which 
is commonly very sparing of all notices of the doing 
of the Angles, records, under 547, " in this year Ida 
assumed the kingdom, from whom came the royal 
race of Northumbrians." Northumbria was some- 
times one kingdom, sometimes divided into two — 
Deira and Bernicia — lying, respectively, south and 
lorth of the Tyne. It is interesting to note that 
Bamborough is mentioned as the spot which Ida first 
occupied as his base of operations. " He surrounded 
it," said the Chronicler, " first with a ditch, and 
afterwards with a wall." 

* Lincoln. 2 York. 



104 THE ENGLISH CONQUEST*. 

In the latter half of the sixth century the West 
Saxons regained their activity, and pushed forwards 
the conquests which had been checked awhile by the 
defeat at Badon Hill. Under the year 552, the 
Chronicle records : " In this year Cynric fought 
against the British in a place which is called Searo- 
burgh (Old Sarum), and put the Brito-Welsh to 
flight." Four years afterwards we find him fighting 
with the same enemies at Barbury Hill, some twenty- 
five miles to the north. 1 In 560 Cynric was succeeded 
by his son Ceawlin, and under his rule the West Saxons 
made rapid progress. After a conflict with the ruler 
of Kent — the first instance we find on record of strife 
between different stocks of the conquerors — we find 
him in 571 fighting against the Brito-Welsh at Bed- 
ford, and taking four towns (one of which can be 
clearly identified as Aylesbury) ; and in 577, again, 
we read how Ceawlin and Cuthwine (a brother of the 
king) fought against three kings at Deorham, and 
took three cities from them — Gloucester and Ciren- 
cester and Bath. Frethern (in Gloucestershire) is 
mentioned (though we cannot be certain of the place) 
as the scene of another battle (584). Here " Cutha 
was slain, and Ceawlin took many towns, and count- 
less booty, and returned thence wrathful to his own." 
This may be said to mark, for a time, the furthest 
advance of Wessex as against the British population. 



1 If the "Beranbarh" of the Chronicle is, as Mr. Thorpe thinks, 
Banbury, in the north of Oxfordshire, it would show a greater advance. 
Barbury is a height of the Marlborough Downs (between Swindon and 
Marlborough). The remains of a great British camp are still to be 
seen there. 



THE KINGDOM OF MERCIA. 105 

The great victory of Deorham was the last of Ceaw- 
lin's successes. 

Another kingdom remains to be spoken of — Mercia, 
the settlement of the Angles in Central England. 
No part of the history of the Conquest is more 
obscure. The name of Mercians signifies " Men of 
the Marshes," and refers to their position as living on 
the boundaries of the British kingdoms. It must, 
therefore, be somewhat late in date. That the tribes 
who had conquered Eastern England, which was 
then, it must be remembered, largely occupied by 
marsh and fen, pushed their way to the westward, 
may be fairly conjectured. And it is also probable 
that advance parties from the West Saxons, after these 
had resumed their career of conquest, came north- 
wards. Mercia, therefore, may be regarded as mainly 
an Anglian settlement, but with the admixture of a 
certain Saxon element. It has been pointed out that 
in history it appears as less united in feeling and 
action than any other of the English states. Its first 
king is said to have been Crida, whose death is 
assigned to the year 600. 

In 577 the work of the conquerors was substantially 
finished. Let us see how the two races — British and 
Saxon (or English, as we shall hereafter call it) stood 
to one another ; how they shared the island between 
them. 

South of the Bristol Channel the Britons still occu- 
pied Cornwall, Devonshire, and almost all Somerset- 
shire and Dorsetshire. This region was called West 
Wales. 

North of the Bristol Channel we must imagine a 




Walker &■ Boutall sc 



MAP 2— A.D. 577. 



THE BOUNDARY OF WALES. 107 

Wales — North Wales, a it was called— advanced 
eastward so far as to include Monmouth, Hereford- 
shire, Shropshire, Cheshire, and some portion of 
Gloucestershire and Worcester. 

North of the Mersey, again, we have another British 
state including Lancashire, the hilly region of 
Western Yorkshire, and the mountain counties of 
Cumberland and Westmoreland. This goes by the 
name of Cumbria. 

Finally, north of the Solway Firth is the British 
state of Strathclyde, reaching as far as the Firth of 
Clyde. 

The remainder of the island, putting the region 
north of the Clyde and Forth out of the question, 
consists of about three-fifths. The Angles occupy 
the North and East and North Midlands, the Saxons 
the remainder, excepting the Jutish kingdom of Kent, 
and the Jutish settlements of the Isle of Wight and 
the south of Hampshire. These latter, however, 
seem not to have been independent. 

But the boundary between Welsh and English was 
continually shifting, always in a westerly direction. 
In the course of another century and a half, West 
Wales had disappeared, as had Cumbria also ; while 
North Wales had been reduced to something like the 
present dimension of Wales, except that it would 
include the county of Monmouth. 

And what, it may be asked, became of the inhabi- 
tants of the country that thus became English instead 
of being British ? This is a question that has been 
variously answered ; some writers holding that the 
Britons were exterminated ; others, that large num- 



108 THE ENGLISH CONQUEST. 

bers of them were left. Possibly the right answer 
lies between the two, but nearer to the first than to 
the second. It is not too much to say that the 
language was absolutely changed, and that with the 
British language the laws and the religion of the 
conquered people disappeared. But it is only reason- 
able to suppose that the native race did not fare alike 
in all parts of the country. There is a large part of 
England in which, except in the names of some large 
natural features, such as rivers and hills, not a trace of 
the Celt remains. Roughly speaking, this part cor- 
responds to that which has been already described 
as belonging to the conquerors in 577. But westward 
of this line the Celtic element becomes more and 
more evident. No one, for instance, who compares a 
Herefordshire peasant with his fellow in Sussex, can 
doubt that there is a considerable difference of race 
between them, and that this difference comes from a 
mixture of Celtic blood. And when we come to the 
extreme west of the island (I leave Wales out of 
consideration), we find in Cornwall a Celtic language 
which has only ceased to be spoken within the 
memory of persons still living. 

But what really happened can never be known. 
No records of the time have been left, except some 
such brief notice as we find of the taking of Anderida, 
that " there was not one Briton left." Yet here and 
there nature has preserved some curiously significant 
record of those dreadful days. One such memorial 
has been eloquently interpreted by a writer, to whom 
every student of history owes a debt larger than can 
be expressed. I cannot better conclude this chapter 
then by quoting it : 



THE KING'S SCAUR. I09 

"If history tells us nothing of the victories that laid 
this great district at the feet of its conquerors, the 
spade of the archaeologist has done somewhat to 
reveal the ruin and misery of the conquered people. 
The caves of the Yorkshire moorlands preserve traces 
of the miserable fugitives who fled to them for shelter. 
Such a cave opens on the side of a lonely ravine, 
known now as the King's Scaur, high up in the moors 
beside Settle. In primaeval ages it had been a haunt 
of hyaenas, who dragged thither the mammoths, the 
reindeer, the bisons, and the bears that growled in the 
neighbouring glens. At a later time it became a 
home of savages, whose stone adzes and flint knives 
and bone harpoons are still embedded in its floor. 
But these, too, vanished in their turn, and this haunt 
of primitive man lay lonely and undisturbed till the 
sword of the English invaders drove the Roman 
provincials for shelter to the moors. The hurry of 
their flight may be gathered from the relics their 
cave-life has left behind it. There was clearly little 
time to do more than to drive off the cattle, the 
swine, the goats, whose bones lie scattered round the 
hearth fire at the mouth of the cave, where they served 
the wretched fugitives for food. The women must 
have buckled hastily their brooches of bronze or 
parti-coloured enamel, the peculiar workmanship of 
Celtic Britain, and snatched up a few household 
implements as they hurried away. The men, no 
doubt, girded on as hastily the swords, whose dainty 
sword hilts of ivory and bronze still remain to tell the 
tale of their doom, and hiding in their breast what 
money the house contained, from coins of Trajan to 




FLINT KNIVES. 

{Reproduced from " Transactions of the Essex Field Club") 



THE STORY OF THE CAVE. in 

the wretched ' minims ' that told of the Empire's 
decay, mounted their horses to protect their flight. 
At nightfall all were crouching beneath the dripping 
roof of the cave or round the fire that was blazing at 
its mouth, and a long suffering began in which the 
fugitives lost year by year the memory of the civili- 
zation from which they came. A few charred bones 
show how hunger drove them to slay their horses for 
food; reddened pebbles mark the hour when the new 
vessels they wrought were too weak to stand the fire, 
and their meal was cooked by dropping heated stones 
into the pot. A time seems to have come when their 
very spindles were exhausted, and the women who 
wove in that dark retreat made spindle whorls as 
they could from the bones that lay about them." 




STATUE OF A RIVER GOD— 1'RObABLY THE NORTH TYN'E. 



XL 



THE FIRST FOUR BRETWALDAS (ELLE, CEAWLIN, 
ETHELBERT, REDWALD). 

Bede tells us in his "Ecclesiastical History" that 
seven princes at various times and in different places 
held the sovereignty or chieftainship I of the English 
kingdoms. The seven of his list are Elle of Sussex, 
Ceawlin of Wessex, Ethelbert of Kent, Redwald of 
East Anglia, Edwin, Oswald, and Oswin of North- 
umbria. 

The title requires some explanation, an explanation 
which it is not easy to give without entering into 
a very difficult controversy. What the word itself 
means is not by any means certain. Even its deriva- 
tion is a matter of dispute. About the latter half of 
it, indeed, all are agreed. Walda or wealda (for the 
word has the two forms) are clearly connected with 
our " wield." The " walda " was the " wielder " or 
" ruler." But " wielder " of what ? " Bret " naturally 
suggests "Britain" or "Briton," words often spelt with 
an " e " instead of an " i." The Bretwalda, then, 

1 The two words used are imperium and ducatus, the latter obviously 
meaning much less than the former. " Empire " and " dukedom " are, 
etymologically, their English equivalents. 



BRETWALDA, BRITANNIA, AND BRYTEN. 113 

would be the ruler of Britain. But, on the other 
hand, it is maintained that "bret" is not the right 
form, which should rather be " bryt," connected with 
the word " bryten " " broad." According to this view, 
therefore, the Bretwalda would be the " wide ruler." 
Professor Freeman is disposed to think that this 
derivation' is correct, but that nevertheless the word 
did mean, if not to those who first used it, at least in 
Bede's time, the " ruler of Britain." T Such incorrect 
uses of words are not uncommon in times when men 
knew little or nothing about the origin of the terms 
which they employ in common speech. 2 Of course, 
it may be asked, Did the English speak of the island 
of which they possessed themselves as " Britain " ? 
The answer is — certainly not. But as soon as their 
history began to be written, being written in Latin, the 
word Britannia would come into common use again ; 
a Latin writer such as Bede (672-735) might easily 
translate the word Bretwalda by " Britanniae im- 
perator" or "dux" without thinking of the true 
derivation from " bryten." 

It has been suggested that the English kings who 
used this title were thinking of the old title of 
Emperor, and were, in fact, claiming it for themselves, 

1 He mentions another form as being sometimes used " Bretaeen- 
wealda," in Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which would be almost conclusive 
on this point. 

2 The Latin adverb equidem is a case in point. Cicero, the highest 
in authority in all matters of Latin style, never uses it except with the 
first person singular, thinking, there can be very little doubt, that it was 
formed from the pronoun ego (I) and the adverb quidem (indeed). But, 
as a matter of fact, the word was not formed in this way, but from the 
interjection e and quidem. Cicero's usage, therefore, was guided by a 
mistaken etymology. 



114 THE FIRST FOUR BRETWALDAS. 

as Carausius and other pretenders had claimed it in 
the latter days of the Roman dominion. And the 
fact that Ethelbert of Kent had a coin struck with 
the Roman device of the wolf suckling two children * 
has been brought forward as a proof of some such 
pretensions. It is possible that Ethelbert, an am- 
bitious prince, may have had some such notion 
suggested to him by the Gallic bishop who acted 
as his wife's chaplain, but it is more probable 
that the coin was only copied by unskilful artizans, 
who could not make a device of their own. Doubt- 
less when in the ninth century Egbert, after making 
his supremacy to be acknowledged by all the 
English states, revived the title of Bretwalda, he was 
thinking of an Imperial dignity. But then Egbert 
had seen the great Charles crowned at Rome, and 
would have a special satisfaction in claiming for 
himself something like the Imperial dignity which 
he had seen revived in so splendid a way. 

It is impossible to give any precise definition of 
the Bretwalda's power, either of its degree or of its 
extent. Both, we may be sure, varied with the 
princes who held it. Some of these could not have 
had anything like the power of some of the kings 
who were never honoured with this title. 

What claims the first Bretwalda in Bede's list, Ella 
of Sussex, had to the dignity we have no means of 
knowing. Any supremacy he may have had outside 
his own dominions could not have extended beyond 

1 A picturing of the old legend which told how a she-wolf nourished 
Romulus and Remus, twin sons of Rhea Sylvia, and founders of Rome, 
when exposed in the marshes of Tiber. 



CEAWLIN OF WESSEX. 



115 



the kingdom of Kent. But what his relations were 
with this kingdom, whether he did it any service 
which was thus acknowledged, is a matter upon which 
we can scarcely even form a guess. 1 But we may be 
sure that whatever his power was it did not extend 
beyond the south-eastern corner of the island. 

Of Ceawlin of Wessex, the second Bretwalda, we 
have already heard something. In 568, nine years 
before his great victory at Dereham, he had defeated 
Ethelbert of Kent, who could then have been little more 
than a lad, 2 at Wimbledon, in Surrey. This defeat 
was probably followed by some acknowledgment of 
the supremacy of the West Saxon king, on the part 
of Ethelbert and his subjects. Ceawlin's career after 
the battle of Dereham is obscure. We hear of another 
victory at Frethern, darkened by the death of the 
conqueror's brother and probably his son ; and then 
under the year 592 we have this entry in the Chronicle : 
" In this year there was a great slaughter in Britain, 
at Woddesbeorg, 3 and Ceawlin was driven out." His 
successes — so much we may conjecture by the some- 
what dubious help of later writers — had corrupted 
his character, and his own kindred rose against him. 
A league was formed with the British tribes against 
whom he had been fighting for so many years. It 
was joined, or encouraged, by Ethelbert of Kent, who 
had been strengthening himself in the east, while his 

1 Dr. Lappenberg (i. 127, Thorpe's translation) writes : " Sussex is 
said to have first enjoyed that supremacy when it had to defend Kent." 
But he gives no authority, a thing which he very seldom neglects. 

2 One text of the Saxon Chronicle gives the date of his birth at 552. 

3 Possibly Wanborough, in Wiltshire, about four miles from Swin- 
don. 



Il6 THE FIRST FOUR BRETWALDAS. 

former overlord had been busy in the west, and who 
had now brought under his supremacy Sussex and 
Essex. Ceawlin died two years afterwards in exile. 
The words in which William of Malmesbury sums up 
the story of his reign are these : " In his last days 
banished from his kingdom he presented a pitiable 
spectacle to his enemies. So much hated was he that 
the signal, so to speak, sounded against him on both 
sides. The English and the Britons joined against 
him, and his army was put to flight at Wodnesdic. 
Thus in the thirty-first year of his reign he was stripped 
of his kingdom and forthwith died." Britons and 
English joining to get rid of an obnoxious ruler is 
another fact in the history and marks an advance. 
We may not admire the motives which brought these 
allies together, but it is clear that the dreadful ex- 
terminating wars of the earlier time are at an end. 

We have now come to the third Bretwalda, Ethel- 
bert of Kent. His early reign had been marked, we 
have seen, by a disastrous defeat. From this circum- 
stances had given him the opportunity to recover, 
and he seems to have used it well. Of the facts of 
his reign we know little except that somewhere in 
the latter part of the sixth century he married the 
Princess Bertha, a daughter of Charibert, who became 
King of the Franks in 561, and that, owing to this 
alliance, he was, as the Chronicler tells us more than 
once, " the first of English kings to be baptized." 
But, thanks to Bede, who was naturally interested in 
the first Christian monarch, we have a clear idea of 
his power. That he exercised any control over the 
West Saxons we cannot suppose. We hear indeed 



REDWALD, KING OF ANGLIA. 117 

that "by the help of King Ethelbert, Augustine called 
to a conference learned men of the Britons," and he 
must have passed through Wessex to reach the place 
of meeting. But the Chronicler tells us of Ceolwulf, of 
Wessex, who came to the throne in 597, that he con- 
stantly strove and fought against either " the Angle 
race, or against the Welsh, or against the Picts, or 
against the Scots." Over the eastern side of the 
island, however, at least as far north as the Humber, 
his supremacy was undoubted. His sister, Ricula by 
name, was married to the king of the East Saxons, 
whose dominions comprised Essex, Hertfordshire, and 
Middlesex, and with Middlesex, of course, London, 
with its strong walls, its wealth, its numerous popula- 
tion. This alliance had probably something to do 
with the overlordship which Ethelbert undoubtedly 
exercised over his neighbours on the east. Of his 
relationship with Sussex we know nothing ; but this 
kingdom, small and isolated as it was, could hardly 
have maintained its independence. East Anglia, 
under its king, Redwald, of whom we shall hear more 
hereafter, paid him the same submission. We hear of 
Redwald as visiting Ethelbert's Court in 599, and ulti- 
mately through his persuasion, or, possibly, compulsion, 
receiving baptism. But his power spread beyond East 
Anglia as far as the Humber, " that great river," as 
Bede describes it, "by which the Northern are divided 
from the Southern Angles." How far in a westerly 
direction his power extended it is impossible to say. 
Mercia, the great kingdom of the Midlands, was not 
consolidated under a powerful king till after Ethel- 
bert's death. The small states of which it was after- 



EDWIN, THE EIFTH BRETWALDA. 119 

wards constituted probably owned his supremacy, 
and, for a time, that of the king who succeeded him 
in his position of overlord. 

This position Ethelbert does not seem to have held 
up to the time of his death. This took place in the 
year 616 ; but by that time Redwald of East Anglia 
was Bretwalda. How power came to be thus trans- 
ferred from one prince to another we cannot say, but 
we may safely guess that the new faith which Ethel- 
bert had adopted, which he had pressed on Redwald, 
and which Redwald afterwards threw off, had some- 
thing to do with it. Anyhow the last Anglian king 
appears as fourth on the list of Bretwaldas and holds 
the dignity till his death, an event of which we cannot 
fix the date, but which we may suppose not to have 
happened later than 620. Before his death, by a great 
victory over Ethelfrith, of Northumbria, he had estab- 
lished Edwin, the fifth Bretwalda, on the throne of 
that kingdom. Of this battle we shall hear more 
hereafter. But the politics of the English kingdoms 
are now becoming so closely connected with the 
struggles between Christianity and Paganism, that it is 
necessary to describe without any further delay how 
the faith which had been destroyed by the invaders, 
and which for a century could scarcely have had a 
single adherent in the eastern half of the island, again 
became supreme. 



XII. 



THE CONVERSION OF ENGLAND 



The England which was described in the last 
chapter was, without doubt, a pagan country. In 
a few spots here and there some scattered survivors 
of the conquered race may have cherished some 
recollection of their old faith ; but nowhere was it 
openly professed, and in some places it was absolutely 
forgotten. The independent Britons of the West held 
aloof from the heathen invaders, whom they regarded, 
to use the language of one of their writers, as "hateful 
to God and man." 1 The more zealous Christians of 
Ireland and Scotland, of whose missionary spirit St. 
Patrick and St. Aidan may be taken as examples, 
may have done something to touch the heathen 
nearest to their own borders. But the work of con- 
version had substantially to be done anew. 

It was done by two sets of workers, one coming 
from Rome, the other from the native churches. 

The story of the Roman missionaries is easily told, 
for we have a clear and trustworthy record of it. It 
runs thus : 

Somewhere about the year 580, almost the time, 

1 Gildas. 



" DE IRA ERUTI." 121 

when the English conquest reached its first stage, one 
Gregory, a noble Roman, abbot of a monastery which 
he had himself founded, passing through the slave- 
market of Rome, was attracted by the fair faces and 
flaxen hair of some youths exposed for sale. " Who 
are these ? " he asked of the slave-dealer. " They 
come from Britain." "Are they Christians or Pagans?" 
" Pagans." " Alas ! that men so bright of face should 
be possessed of the author of darkness ! of what tribe 
are they ? " " Angles." " Well called, for they have 
the faces of angels, and should be co-heirs with the 
angels in heaven. But, from what province do they 
come ? " " They are Deiri." " It is well, rescued 
from the wrath of God J and made Christians." A few 
days afterwards he set out with some of his monks on 
a missionary journey to the people of whom he had 
thus heard. But the Romans had learnt to love him 
so well that they compelled him to return. For nearly 
twenty years his plan had to be put aside. Even when 
in 590 he became Pope, other more pressing matters 
claimed his attention. At last, in 595, the time 
seemed to have come. He chose from among the 
monks of his old monastery a certain Augustine, and 
sent him with some companions to do the work from 
which he had been himself hindered. The little com- 
pany set out ; but when they reached Gaul they 
heard such terrifying accounts of the savagery of the 
English that Augustine returned to Rome to beg that 
they might be released from their task. Gregory re- 
fused. " The more difficult the labour the greater the 
reward," was his answer. Then they went on, but 

1 " De ira eruti." 



122 THE CONVERSION OF ENGLAND. 

slowly. It was not till 597 that they landed at Ebbes- 
fleet, 1 in the Isle of Thanet. 

They had chosen their place prudently. Ethelbert, 
King of Kent, had married, as has been before 
stated, a Christian princess. It had been agreed 
that the Queen should be allowed to follow her 
own religion ; she had a chaplain, Luidhard, Bishop 
of Senlis ; and the old Roman-British Church of 
St. Martin, in Canterbury, had been assigned for 
the Christian worship. Ethelbert received Augustine's 
messengers courteously, and promised to give him 
the interview for which he asked. Only he stipulated 
that the meeting must take place in the open air. 
He feared the power of the spells which the strangers 
might be able to use were he to talk to them under a 
roof. 

The King and the missionaries met under an oak 
held sacred by the people of the country. Augustine 
did his best to make the scene impressive. He came 
up from the shore in solemn procession. A cross- 
bearer carried in front a large cross of silver. Next 
came another attendant bearing a picture of Christ, 
richly worked on a panel with gold and colours. 
Behind came the rest of the company, chanting a 
litany in which they besought the mercy of God on 
the people of Kent and themselves. The King knew 
no Latin ; the missionaries could not speak English. 
But some priests who had come with Augustine from 
Gaul interpreted his words when he explained what 
the Christ whose picture they saw had come to do. 
Ethelbert answered that the promises of the strangers 

1 The place where Hengist and Horsa are said to have landed. 



AUGUSTINE LOOKS TO BRITISH CHURCHES. 123 

sounded well. He could not undertake to leave the 
faith and customs of his fathers, but his people might 
do as they thought best. He invited the missionaries 
to come back with him to his capital town of Canter- 
bury. There they were permitted to worship in the 
Church of St. Martin. 

Their success was rapid. They had landed, it would 
seem, in the early spring of 697, and on June 2nd 
(which was the festival of Whitsunday) the King was 
baptized. His zeal and liberality were remarkable. 
He gave up to Augustine his own palace, and helped 
him in other ways most effectually. 

Augustine naturally looked for the help of the 
British churches. This hope was disappointed, pro- 
bably from faults on both sides. The Roman mis- 
sionary considered that the native bishops owed him 
obedience as having been put under his care by Pope 
Gregory. His chief demands were that they should 
follow the Roman time of keeping Easter, and that 
they should help in preaching to the English. The 
first meeting had no result. At a second seven 
British bishops and the Abbot of Bangor came to 
confer with Augustine. On their way they had 
asked the advice of a hermit. " Shall we change 
the customs of our fathers ? " " Yes, if the new- 
comer be a man of God." " How shall we know 
whether he be such or no ? " " The Lord said, ' Take 
my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek 
and lowly.' If this Augustine be meek and lowly, 
be sure that he beareth the yoke of Christ." " But 
how shall we know this ? " " If he rise to meet you 
when you approach, hear and follow him ; but if he 



124 THE CONVERSION OF ENGLAND. 

despise you and rise not, reject him." Augustine, 
looking upon himself as superior in rank, remained 
seated : and the British bishops refused to yield to 
his demands " If he will not rise up to greet us," 
they said, " how much more will he despise us, if we 
yield to him." Augustine was greatly enraged. "If 
ye will not have peace with your brethren, ye shall 
have war with your enemies. If ye will not preach 
the way of life to the English, ye shall suffer death at 
their hands." These were words which soon had a 
terrible fulfilment, and were afterwards believed to 
have been spoken with a sinister meaning. 

Among the English themselves Augustine had more 
success. Another bishopric was founded at Rochester, 
and the whole of Kent soon became Christian. The 
small kingdom of Essex, then ruled by Sebert, a 
nephew of King Ethelbert, accepted the new faith ; 
and London, its capital, became the seat of a bishop. 
Mellitus, one of a company sent out by Gregory in 
601, to reinforce Augustine, was the first to occupy 
the see. 

The next conquest was Northumbria. Here, Edwin, 
son of Ella, and rightful heir, had been dispossessed 
by his neighbour Ethelfrith. The boy — he was but 
three years old — had been brought up by a British 
king. His protector was defeated in a battle fought 
near Chester by Ethelfrith. 1 Edwin fled, first to 

1 It was after this battle that the prophecy of Augustine found a 
terrible fulfilment. The monks of Bangor stood on a neighbouring 
hill, watching the struggle, and offering up prayers for the success of 
their countrymen. The battle over, the King of Northumbria inquired 
who they were. When he was told, he said, " If they cry to their God 
against us, and load us with imprecations, then, though unarmed, they 
fight against us," and commanded that they should be put to death. 



THE VISION OF EDWIN. 12 5 

Mercia, and then to Redwald, King of East Anglia. 
To two requests of Ethelbert that the fugitive should 
be given up, Redwald returned a refusal. A third, 
strengthened by a great bribe and by a threat of war, 
he made up his mind to grant. A friend warned Edwin 
of his danger, but he refused to fly. " I will not break 
my compact," he said, " with a king who has not 
harmed me. If I am to die, let him rather than a 
less noble hand deliver me to death ? And whither 
can I flee, I, who have wandered through all the 
provinces of Britain ? " 

The friend departed, and the prince sat down on a 
stone in front of the palace. A stranger came up 
and asked him, " Why do you wake when others 
sleep ? Think not, however, that I do not know the 
care of your waking. Say, then, what reward will 
you give to him who shall deliver you from these 
cares, and persuade Redwald not to give you into 
the hand of your enemies ? " " He shall have all 
the gratitude of my heart." " And what if he shall 
promise that you shall destroy your adversaries and 
be more powerful, not only than your forefathers, 
but than any English king? " " I will give myself to 
him." " And if he tell you of doctrines of life and 
salvation better than aught your fathers have heard, 
will you listen to him ? " " I will." Then the stranger 
laid his hand on Edwin's head, and said, " When this 
sign shall be repeated, remember this sign and this hour, 
and fulfil what you now promise." With these words 
the stranger, it is said, vanished. Shortly afterwards, 
Edwin's friend returned with the news that Redwald, 
persuaded by his queen, had refused the offers of 



126 THE CONVERSION OF ENGLAND. 

Ethelfrid. Nor was this all ; he marched against the 
usurper, and defeated him in a bloody battle on the 
eastern bank of the Idle. 1 Edwin thus regained his 
paternal dominions. He declined, however, to receive 
baptism, notwithstanding the persuasions of his Chris- 
tian wife, Ethelburga, daughter of Ethelbert of Kent, 
and her adviser, Paulinus. But when he had nar- 
rowly escaped assassination at the hand of an emis- 
sary of the King of Wessex and was further touched 
by the danger of his wife, who was delivered of a 
daughter a few hours after the attempt, he could 
resist no longer. He was in this mood when Paulinus, 
so runs the story, approached him, laid his hand upon 
his head, and asked him whether he recognized the 
sign. The King at once promised to receive the faith, 
and assembled his council to discuss the matter with 
them. Coifi, the high priest, when asked for his 
opinion, declared that in his opinion the old gods 
were nothing worth. " No one," he said, "has been 
more zealous for them than I, yet many have received 
greater rewards and attained more success." Another 
noble answered the king's question in a famous 
apologue. " This life, O King, in comparison with the 
time that is hidden from us, seems to be such as this. 
When you are sitting in your hall at your meal in the 
winter time, with your nobles about you and a fire in 
the midst, a sparrow flies quickly through, entering at 
one door and passing out by the other. So it goes 
from storm to storm. Such is the life of man. If 
this doctrine tells us anything more certain, let us 

1 The Telle rises five miles from Retford, and flows into the Trent a 
few miles below Gainsborough. 



RELAPSE INTO PAGANISM. 12 J 

receive it." Paulinus now delivered a discourse, in 
which he set forth the Christian faith. The King 
and all his nobles received it, Coifi setting the 
example of profaning the temples in which he had 
ministered. 

East Anglia was the next kingdom to become 
Christian. Redvvald had received baptism in Kent, 
persuaded or compelled by his overlord, King Ethel- 
bert, and had introduced the new faith into his king- 
dom. But the heathen party, led, it is said, by his 
queen, were too strong for him. He endeavoured to 
compromise matters by setting up altars to the old 
gods in the churches which he dedicated to Christian 
worship. His son, Earpwarld, was a more consistent 
believer, as after his death was also his brother Sige- 
bert. Felix, a native of Burgundy, who had been 
sent by Honorius, Archbishop of Canterbury, was 
the chief instrument in the conversion of this 
region, and has consequently received the title of the 
Apostle of East Anglia. He fixed his bishop's seat 
at Dunwich, on the coast of Suffolk, then and 
afterwards a prosperous town with many churches, 
now reduced by the inroads of the sea to a petty 
village. 

It must not be supposed that the progress of 
Christianity went on without interruption. In Kent 
itself there had been a relapse into Paganism when 
Ethelbert was succeeded (in 617) by his son Eadbald. 
The same change took place in Essex, and Mellitus 
was driven away from his see of London. At one 
time it seemed as if the whole work of Augustine 
was to be abandoned. Archbishops Laurentius, Mel- 



128 THE CONVERSION OF ENGLAND. 

litus, and Justus of Rochester, agreed to leave the 
country, and the two latter actually departed. Bede 
thus relates what followed. Laurentius, left alone, 
slept in his cathedral church. There St. Peter 
appeared to him, reproved him for his faithlessness, 
and enforced his reproof by a severe scourging. The 
next morning the Archbishop presented himself 
before the King. " Who," said Eadbald, " has dared 
so to treat a person of your consideration ? " Then 
Laurentius told him what he had seen and suffered. 
Something, it is certain, changed the King's feelings. 
He embraced the faith which before he had always 
rejected, and Kent remained thenceforth steadily 
Christian. The re-conversion of Essex was longer 
delayed. 

In Northumbria the work of Paulinus was wholly 
undone. Edwin fell in battle (633), and his kingdom 
relapsed into paganism. 

Here comes in the work of the Celtic missionaries. 
It may be said, indeed, that Kent and East Anglia 
(to which, perhaps, Essex should be added) were the 
only permanent results of the mission of Augustine. 
In Northumbria Oswald, who during the reign of 
Edwin had been baptized and instructed by the 
monks of Iona, when restored to his kingdom, 
begged his old teachers to send him a missionary, 
who might help to re-convert his people. A certain 
Corman was despatched. He was a man of stern 
temper, and lacked the gift of persuasiveness. 
Returning to those who had sent him, and reporting 
that the English were hopelessly obstinate, he was 
told by Aidan, one of the assessors of the synod, 



THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY. 1 29 

that his own severity had been in fault. Aidan 
himself was then sent, and was settled by King 
Oswald in the island of Lindisfarne, off the coast of 
Northumbria. It is to Aidan and his associates, 
among whom the King, himself a most zealous Chris- 
tian, must rank first, that the permanent conversion of 
Northumbria was due. 

Mercia, under its king, Penda, long remained ob- 
stinately heathen. The wars which this savage 
monarch waged with his neighbours seemed to have 
had, for one at least of their motives, a hatred of the 
Christian faith. But Penda himself, before his death 
in 655, felt that the new faith was growing too strong 
for him. All his children seems to have been Chris- 
tians, and his son Peada brought back with him from 
Northumbria, where he had married a daughter of 
King Edwy, four missionaries. The old king was 
now willing to tolerate the Christian faith, but he was 
always, it is said, most impatient of those whose 
practice did not agree with their profession. After 
his death the work of conversion went on rapidly. 

The spread of Christianity in Wessex is connected 
with the name of Birinus, a Benedictine monk from 
Rome, who went there in 634, by the advice, it is 
said, of Pope Honorius (625-638). Birinus was 
helped by Oswald of Northumbria and, probably, by 
missionaries from the Northumbrian Church. He 
was able to convert King Cynegils, and founded his 
bishop's see at the Oxfordshire Dorchester. 

The last of the English kingdoms to give up Odin 
for Christ was Sussex. Wilfrid, a Northumbrian 
bishop, had been banished from his native country. 



lUapitreuai^Iuini 




PAGE OF GOSPELS. 

{From the original MS.) 



WILFRID BAPTIZES THE SOUTHERN SAXONS. 131 

and, after various wanderings, found himself, in 681, 
among the South Saxons. This people was still 
mainly heathen, though their king and his wife had 
been baptized, and a little settlement of Irish monks 
was endeavouring to spread the gospel. Wilfrid 
came at the right time. The country was desolated 
by famine, the result of a long drought, and the 
wretched people, who were very backward in know- 
ledge of common life, were in large numbers putting 
an end to their own lives. Wilfrid taught them to 
use nets for sea-fishing, and thus put them in the way 
of obtaining an ample provision of food. Finally, he 
persuaded a number of them to receive the rite of 
baptism. It so happened that on the very day when 
this ceremony was solemnly performed, the long 
drought came to an end. Before long all Sussex had 
become Christian. 

Thus within a century the work which had been 
begun at Ebbesfleet, in 597, was brought to an end. 




XIII. 



THE NORTHUMBRIAN BRETWALDAS. 



The story of Edwin of Northumbria, fifth on Bede's 
list of Bretwaldas, has already been told in part, 
chiefly in its bearing on the progress of the Christian 
faith. Something remains to be said of his position 
as overlord of England. It was his claim to this 
dignity that brought him into the danger of assassi- 
nation from which he so narrowly escaped. 1 The 
assassin was sent by a West Saxon king, who hoped 
thus to rid himself of a rival who was growing 
dangerously powerful. The treacherous plot — for the 
man had come in the guise of a peaceable envoy — 
was fully punished. Edwin, as soon as he was re- 
covered from his wound, and had eased his conscience 
by fulfilling his long-delayed purpose of baptism, 
marched against Wessex, and amply avenged the 
wrong that had been done him. Elsewhere, too, he 
displayed his power. As the Chronicler somewhat 
strangely puts it, " he ravaged all Britain, save Kent 
only." And from Kent he had taken, as we have 
seen, his second wife. His conquests, too, are said to 

1 See p. 126. 



PEACEFUL BRITAIN. I33 

have extended both westward and northward. His 
name is still preserved in the city — Edinburgh — 
which marked the northern limit of his dominion. 
At Chester, in the west, he built a fleet, with which 
he subdued the two Monas, Man and Anglesey. At 
home peace and order prevailed. The laws were so 
strictly enforced that theft and violence became 
unknown, " In the days of Edwin," says Bede, 
"a woman with a babe at her breast might have 
travelled over the island without suffering harm." 
The highways, thus made safe, were also furnished 
with the " drinking fountains," a convenience which 
we have only now again begun to erect. " He 
placed cisterns of stone at convenient intervals to 
collect water from the nearest springs, and attached 
to them cups of brass for the refreshment of the 
passers-by." In his own person he made more show 
of royal state than had any of the princes before him. 
It is possible that he had some thought in his mind 
of the Roman dominion when he had carried before 
him the Roman tufa, a globe, or, as some think, a 
bunch of feathers attached to a spear. 

Edwin's reign lasted for sixteen years. But during 
the latter part of this period a formidable rival had 
been gathering strength. In the yeai before that in 
which Edwin was baptized, Penda, grandson of Crida 
of Mercia, and twelfth in descent from Woden, came 
to the throne of Mercia. He " held the kingdom 
thirty winters," a long reign mainly spent in unceas- 
ing hostility to the Christian faith. We next find 
him doing battle with the King of Wessex at Ciren- 
cester, in Gloucestershire, and coming to an agreement 



134 THE NORTHUMBRIAN BRETWALDAS. 

with them. With his southern border thus secure, he 
turned to the west, and found an ally in Cadwalla, 
King of North Wales. 1 Cadwalla was presumably a 
Christian, but he seems to have had no scruple in 
allying himself with a pagan for the conquest of a 
dangerous neighbour (we have already heard in this 
chapter of Edwin's conquests in Wales). Penda and 
Cadwalla encountered Edwin at a place which is 
called in the Chronicle Heathfield, and which has 
been identified, not, one would think, with much 
probability, with Hatfield Chase in Hertfordshire. 
Edwin was defeated and slain. Penda did not feel 
himself strong enough to attempt the conquest of 
Northumbria, but turned his arms elsewhere. The 
English of Leicestershire and of Lincolnshire sub- 
mitted to him, and he wrested from Wessex some of 
its territories. In fact, he busied himself with build- 
ing up the powerful Mercia of which we shall hear so 
much hereafter. Northumbria, meanwhile, had leisure 
to recover itself. Oswy, a kinsman of Edwin, had 
been placed on the throne of Deira ; and Eanfrid, 
eldest son of the Ethelfrid who had been the enemy 
of Edwin, to that of Bernicia. Both had been bap- 
tized, both relapsed into paganism, and both, it is 
said, perished by the hands of Cadwalla. The eyes 
of the people were then turned to Oswald, Eanfrid's 
younger brother. His first act was to march against 
the British princes, whom he found encamped at 
Hexham, near the Roman Wall. Oswald was a firm 
adherent to the faith which his kinsmen had deserted. 

1 " Norih Wales," it will be remembered, was socalled to distinguish 
it from West Wales, the south-western portion of the island. 



OSWALD KNEELS TO THE CROSS. 135 

He bade his followers make a cross of wood, and fix 
it when made in the ground. He is said to have held 
it with his own hands till the hole in which it was to 
stand was filled in with earth. Then turning to his 
men he said, " Soldiers, let us bend our knees, and 
beg of the true and living God to protect us from the 
insolence and fierceness of our enemies, for he knows 
that our cause is just." He then bade them kneel 
down and pray. In the battle that followed the 
soldiers of the cross, though far inferior in numbers 
to their enemies, were completely victorious. Cad- 
walla fell on the field of battle. After the victory, 
Oswald's right to reign over the two kingdoms was 
no longer doubted. He inherited, too, something, we 
cannot say how much, of his predecessor's superiority, 1 
and stands accordingly sixth in Bede's list of the 
Bretwaldas. 

Oswald's reign was short, lasting only for nine 
years, or, eight only, if we exclude "the unhappy 
year," as it was afterwards called, when paganism was 
in the ascent. He was overthrown by the same king 
who had defeated and slain Edwin. The struggle 
was for East Anglia, if it did not actually take place in 
that region, and it was, in its chief motive, a struggle 
of the old faith against the new. East Anglia had 
acknowledged the supremacy of Oswald, and Penda 
of Mercia marched into it. The East Anglian king, 
Sigebert, had retired into monastery ; but the people 

1 We hear of his standing sponsor for Cynegils of Wessex, and of his 
confirming, in the character of Bretwalda, that prince's gift of Dorchester 
(of the Thame) to Birinus. Bede also speaks of his having compelled 
the Picts and Scots to do him homage. 



I36 THE NORTHUMBRIAN BRETWALDAS. 

insisted that he should leave his cell to lead them into 
battle. He so far consented that he joined the army, 
but he refused to carry any arms. He was slain in 
the battle, his army was routed, and his kingdom 
passed for a time into the hands of Penda. Oswald 
marched against the conqueror, and met him at 
Maserfield, a place which has been variously located 
at Oswestry in Shropshire, Winwick in Lancashire, 
and Mirfield in Yorkshire. The battle went against 
the Northumbrians, and Oswald * was slain, exclaim- 
ing, it is said, with his last breath, " Lord, have mercy 
on the souls of my people." 

Penda marched eastward, ravaging as he went, till 
he came to the strong fortress of Bamborough. Un- 
able to take it by assault, he had a vast pile of com- 
bustibles heaped up by its walls, and set fire to. It 
was through the prayers of St. Aidan, as the legend 
goes on to say, that the direction of the wind was 
suddenly changed, and the place saved. Oswald died 
in 642, and was succeeded by his brother Oswy, 
seventh and last of the Bretwaldas. 

For some time Oswy seemed to have little claim to 
the rank or power implied in this title. He had 
troubles at home. He had to divide Northumbria 

1 A beautiful story is told of Oswald. Sitting one day at the table 
with St. Aidan, he was told that a crowd of poor was waiting at his 
gate and asking for alms. The king commanded that the dishes, of 
which the guests had not yet begun to partake, should be divided among 
the poor, and even broke up into small pieces the great silver dish 
which had been placed before him, and distributed the fragments. The 
saint caught the king's right hand in his own and said, " May the hand 
that has done this thing never decay ! " and when, by Penda's orders, 
the limbs of the dead king were exposed on stakes till they rotted, the 
hand which had been thus blessed was found uncorrupted. 



DEFEAT OF PENDA. 137 

with a rival belonging to the ancient house of Ella, 
Oswin by name. For six years Osvvin ruled Deira, 
and when, after an unsuccessful rebellion against his 
superior, he was put to death, was succeeded by a 
son of Oswald. The death of Oswin took place in 
651. Penda, too, was growing more powerful. He 
had subjugated Wessex, and had even induced its 
king to renounce Christianity. When he threatened 
Northumbria, and indeed went so far as to invade it, 
he was bought off by presents, and by the surrender 
of hostages. Alliances, too, of marriage, knit the 
two kingdoms more closely together. The eldest 
son of Oswy married the daughter of Penda, and 
Penda's son, Peada, became the husband of his 
daughter, after having first received baptism. But 
Penda, though in his latter years he showed some- 
thing like tolerance of the new faith, could not submit 
to the supremacy of a Christian overlord, and such a 
supremacy seemed at hand. In 655 (he was then 
nearly eighty years old) he marched into Northumbria, 
and met Oswy near Leeds. The Northumbrian 
vainly endeavoured to appease him with gifts and 
offers of submission. He declared that nothing would 
satisfy him but the extermination of the whole nation. 
The battle was long and furious. Thirty chieftains, 
British and English, had followed Penda to the battle, 
and of these two only survived, one of them being a 
Northumbrian chieftain who had gone over to the 
enemy, but who, on the morning of the battle, re- 
pented of his treachery. The old king was swept 
from the field by the crowd of fugitives. Many 
perished in the battle and in the field ; many more in 



I38 THE NORTHUMBRIAN BRETWALDAS. 

the river Aire, which was then in flood. Its waters were 
afterwards said to have avenged the five kings, who had 
perished by the sword of the old pagan. Two events 
quickly followed on Penda's death. Mercia became 
Christian, and Oswy's dignity as Bretwalda became a 
reality. 

For some years Mercia seems to have been actually 
subject to the Northumbrian king, and to have been 
governed by his deputies. Then the Mercian nobles 
took Wulfere, youngest son of Penda, who had been 
living in concealment, and put him on the throne. 
The Middle Angles and Lincolnshire returned to 
their allegiance. We hear, too, of domestic strife in 
Oswy's family, his son claiming an independent 
kingdom, and even turning, or threatening to turn, 
his arms against his father. Another trouble which 
came upon him in his later years was the great 
pestilence that raged through the island in 664. In 
670 he died, and was succeeded by Egferth, his son. 
A few words will now suffice to finish the story of 
Northumbria as the leading power in England. At 
first, Egferth inherited the power and more than the 
power of his father. Wulfere of Mercia was com- 
pelled to own his superiority, and to surrender to him 
the newly occupied districts of Mid Anglia and Lincoln- 
shire. Then he attacked the Welsh tribes on his 
north-western borders, and added the whole or part 
of the ancient British kingdom of Cambria to his 
dominions. In the pride of his success he resolved to 
push his conquests still further. He marched into 
the territory of the Picts, who occupied the country 
north of a line between the Clyde and the Forth, where 



THE HISTORY OF NORTHUMBRIA ENDS. 1 39 

the wall of Severus had once stood. The Pictish 
king retired before the invaders till they were en- 
tangled in the mountains. Then he turned upon 
them. The battle was fought at a place which is 
called Dumnechtan by Bede. Egferth and his 
Northumbrians were defeated, it may be said, cut to 
pieces. Scarcely a messenger escaped to tell the 
tidings of disaster at his home. The king was buried 
at Iona. With his fall on May 20, 685, the history of 
Northumbria comes practically to an end. 




XIV. 

THE SUPREMACY OF MERCIA. 

SOMETHING has been said of Wulfere, son and 
successor of Penda, in the preceding chapter ; of 
the changes of fortune which befell him in his deal- 
ings with Northumbria, and which caused him, first 
to recover, and then to lose again, power which his 
father had held. Much the same thing happened to 
him in relation to Wessex. Cenwalh, king of that 
country, had been driven from his dominions by 
Penda, c> because he had forsaken his sister." On 
Penda's death, after an exile of three years, he re- 
turned, and began at once to extend his power 
westwards by attacks upon the Welsh. In 66 1 he 
came into collision with Wulfere, who defeated him 
at Partesbury, in Shropshire. The Mercians ravaged 
the country of the West Saxons as far as Ashdown. 
Curiously enough, when we remember what had been 
the conduct of Penda, this victory of Mercia helped 
forward the spread of Christianity. The King of 
Sussex was persuaded or constrained to accept the 
new faith, and Wulfere, who had stood sponsor for 
him at his baptism, bestowed upon his godson the 
Isle of Wight, which he had recently conquered. 
That a Mercian king should bestow the sovereignty 



ETHELRED AND CEOLRED. 141 

of the Isle of Wight at his pleasure shows how com- 
plete was his mastery over his southern neighbours. 
Before his death, which happened in 675, after a 
battle with the West Saxons at Bedwin, 1 Wulfere's 
power had greatly declined in the South as well as in 
the North. 

Ethelred, brother and successor of Wulfere, seems 
to have recovered much that his predecessor had 
lost. We hear of him ravaging Kent, struggling 
with Egfrid of Northumbria for the middle region 
of England, and finally, in 704, resigning his crown 
to become a monk. He died twelve years afterwards, 
Abbot of Bardney, in Lincolnshire. 

Ethelred's successor, Ceonred, son of Wulfere, fol- 
lowed his example of retiring from his throne. In 
709, when his cousin Ceolred, son of Ethelred, was 
old enough to reign, he went on a pilgrimage to 
Rome, received the monastic habit from the Pope 
of that time, and died shortly afterwards in that city. 

In Coelred's short reign (709-716) there seems to 
have been a decline in the Mercian power, due, per- 
haps, to the character of the king. He seems to 
have been a man of violent temper and evil life. 
Wessex appears no longer as an inferior power, but 
as contending with Mercia on equal terms. The two 
met in battle at Wednesbury, in Shropshire. Both 
sides claimed the victory, which, however, inclined to 
the West Saxons. This was in 715 ; the next year, 
Ceolred was smitten with sudden madness as he 
was feasting with his thanes, and died very soon after. 

1 Biedanheafod in the Chronicle. Bedwin is on the edge of Saver- 
nake Forest, in Wiltshire. 



i 4 a 



THE SUPREMACY OF MERCIA. 



Ceolred's successor, Ethelbald, was descended from 
a brother of Penda. He had been banished, or had 
fled from the kingdom to save his life, and had taken 
refuge with Guthlac, a famous hermit, himself a prince 
of the royal house of Mercia, who had fixed his cell 
at Croyland, in Lincolnshire. Guthlac had com- 
forted him in his day of trouble with the assurance 
that the day of better things would come before 
long, and the promise was now fulfilled, for the 
Mercian nobles called him to the empty throne. 
His long reign of forty-one years was a struggle 
for the supremacy of England ; and showed the 
same variety of fortune that we see in the earlier 
efforts of the same kind. None of the English king- 
doms were yet strong enough to keep as well as to 
gain this position of command. The Chronicle, at 
this time always a meagre record, says very little 
about Mercia ; but under the year 732 we find 
" Ethelbald captured Somerton," doubtless the town 
from which Somersetshire took its name, and there- 
fore in the heart of Wessex. This victory seems to 
be, so to speak, the high-water mark of his power. 
Ethelbald now described himself as " King, not of 
the Mercians only, but of all the neighbouring 
peoples who are called by the common name of 
Southern English." To this dominion he wished 
to add that of Northern England. In 735 we are 
told that " he ravaged the land of the Northum- 
brians." More he was not able to do. And it was 
not long before his power in the South was broken. 
The scanty records of the Chronicle are a little 
perplexing. They seem to point to a war succeeded 



EDILHUN THE WEST SAXON. 143 

by an alliance. In 741 " Cuthred succeeded to the 
kingdom of the West Saxons, and held it for sixteen 
years, and he warred boldly against the Mercians." 
Two years afterwards we read : " Ethelbald, King of 
the Mercians, and Cuthred, King of the West Saxons, 
fought against the Welsh." It is possible that in the 
earlier of these two entries the Chronicler is antici- 
pating an event which really belonged to a later 
period in the new king's reign, but which he men- 
tions at once, because it was chief title to be remem- 
bered. In 751 Ethelbald invaded Wessex with a 
numerous army, in which he had enrolled, besides 
his own people, men of Kent, East Saxons, and East 
Angles. The West Saxons met him at Burford, in 
Oxfordshire. Ingulphus l tells a picturesque story, 
which bears, indeed, a suspicious resemblance to an 
incident of the later history of how Edilhun, a 
gigantic West Saxon, bearing in his hand the golden 
dragon which was the cognizance of his race, struck 
down the standard-bearers of the Mercian host, and 
how, later in the day, when chance brought Ethel- 
bald and the West Saxon champion together, the 
King turned and fled, and so decided the fate of 
the battle. Three years afterwards we hear of 
another battle at Seekington, in Warwickshire, in 
which King Ethelbald was slain. It is significant 
that the scene of the war is now transferred to 
Mercian territory. 2 

The Chronicler thus continues the history : — 

1 See Preface. 

2 Lingard thinks that the battle of Seekington was not fought between 
Mercians and West Saxons, but between Ethelbald and a pretender to 
the throne, the Beornred who succeeded him. 



144 THE SUPREMACY OF MERCIA. 

" Beornrcd succeeded to the kingdom, and held it a 
little while, and unhappily ; and in the same year 
Offa drove out Beornred, and succeeded to the king- 
dom, and held it thirty-nine winters." 

Offa is, with the possible exception of Penda, the 
greatest figure among the Mercian kings. A romantic 
story is told how that he was born blind, how, as years 
went on, it was found that he was dumb and a cripple, 
and how he gained sight and speech and activity 
when he had to deliver his native land from the usur- 
pations of Beornred. He belonged to the royal 
house, being descended from Eavva, a brother of 
Penda. 

Offa at once set himself to recover the supremacy 
which had been lost for a time by the defeat at 
Burford. We first find him contending with the 
Hastingas, probably South Saxons who inhabited 
the district which still preserves their name under 
the form of Hastings. Then he turned his arms 
against Kent. In the year 773 "the Mercians and 
the Kentish men fought at Otford." 1 The result of 
the battle was a decided victory for Offa. Before 
long he felt himself strong enough to grapple with 
the great power of Southern England, for in yjj 
Cynewulf [King of Wessex] and Offa fought at 
Benson or Bensington, 2 and Offa took the town." 
The town was one of the residences of the West 
Saxon kings, and the event marks a distinct advance 
of Mercian power. 

1 Ctford is on the Darent, about three miles north of Sevenoaks. 

2 Benson is now a little village on the Thames, not far from the town 
of Wallingford, in Berkshire. 



offa's eminence. 



J 45 



His next campaign was against his British neigh- 
bours on the West. And in this he won a victory 
which has left a memorable trace behind it in the 
work known as Offa's Dyke, the remains of which 
are still to be seen. J He had conquered the king 
of the region of Powys, taking from him his capital 
of Shrewsbury, then called Pengwern. This country 
he peopled with English settlers, and for their pro- 
tection he made a rampart and ditch which reached 
from the Severn to the Dee. Some kind of acknow- 
ledgment of superiority seems also to have been 
made by the kings of Northumbria, but we hear of 
no expedition of Offa in that direction. 

But the most remarkable proof of OfTa's eminence 
is the attention which his proceedings attracted from 
Charles the Great. We are told that when he was 
invading Kent he was met by the messengers of 
Charles, whose help had been asked by the Kentish 
king, and commanded to stop his advance. The 
command was, as has been seen, unheeded. But not 
long after we find Charles sending a friendly letter, 
with costly presents, to " the most powerful ruler of 
the West," as he styles him. 2 Offa sent presents in 
return, and we find him sanctioning a conveyance of 
land made by one of his subjects in favour of the 

1 Kington, in Herefordshire, is one of the places where the " Dyke" 
is still to be seen. The line which it took is different from the present 
boundary between England and Wales, but not to any great extent. It 
may be said that substantially pushed back the Welsh within the limits 
which they still occupy. 

2 We have these and other particulars from Alcuin, a great scholar 
of Northumbrian birth, who for many years was attached to the Court 
of Charles the Great, or employed by him on various missions, 



146 THE SUPREMACY OF MERCIA. 

Abbey of St Denis, and the gift by another, Alder- 
man of Sussex, of the revenues from the harbours of 
Hastings and Pevensey. On the other hand, we hear 
of offences given by the English king to the pride of 
the great king. Charles asked for his son of the 
same name the hand of one of Offa's daughters. 
Offa returned for answer that he could grant it only 
on the condition that his son Egferth should be 
allowed to marry Bertha, Charles's own daughter. 
The demand, for some reason which it is not very 
easy to see, was considered to offend against the 
dignity of the Frankish king. Relations between 
the two Courts were broken off for a time, and 
threats were made that all trade between England 
and French ports would be stopped. Thanks to 
Gerwold, a Churchman, who was then in charge of 
the French customs, and Alcuin, who naturally acted 
as mediator between his host and his countrymen, 
a good understanding was restored. 

In another direction Offa made an effort to 
strengthen his position, which, had it been successful, 
must have had most important consequences. One 
obstacle to Mercia becoming the chief state in Eng- 
land was the disposition of ecclesiastical power. The 
primacy of the English Church was settled at Canter- 
bury in a state remote from Mercia, and owning a 
special allegiance to Wessex. If any prelate could 
dispute the superiority of the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, it was the Archbishop of York, and York was 
in Northumbria. Offa, accordingly, conceived the 
idea of founding an archbishopric in his own 
dominions which should take the first place. He 



148 THE SUPREMACY OF MERCIA. 

sent an embassy to the Pope (Adrian I.), arguing 
that the Mercian bishops should be subject to a 
Mercian head, and proposing an arrangement by 
which Rochester, London, Selsey (Chichester), Win- 
chester, and Sherburne (Salisbury), should be left 
suffragans of Canterbury, while all the sees between 
the Thames and the Humber should be subjected to 
the new Archbishopric of Lichfield. The Pope gave 
his consent to the plan, and sent the pall, the symbol 
of archiepiscopal authority, to Adulph, Bishop of 
Lichfield. The concession was acknowledged by 
the promise of a yearly gift of three hundred 
and sixty-five mancuses x to the Holy See. The 
arrangement lasted but a short time, and Canter- 
bury regained, and has ever since retained, its old 
honours. 

Family alliances were another way in which Offa 
sought to extend his power, but they had unhappy 
results. Elfleda, who married the king of Northum- 
bria, shortly became a widow. Eadburga, the wife 
of Brehtric, king of the West Saxons, poisoned her 
husband by a draught which she intended for his 
favourite. 2 The story of the third daughter, Edel- 
frida, is not less tragical. Ethelbert, the young king 
of East Anglia, came to the Mercian Court to sue for 



1 A mancus was equal to thirty pennies. 

2 Eadburga is said to have fled to the Court of Charles the Great. 
Charles is said to have asked her whether she would have his son or 
himself for a husband. She answered that she preferred the son. " If 
you had chosen me," answered the king, "you should have had my 
son." Afterwards he made her abbess of a nunnery. From this she 
was expelled for misconduct, and finally she died a beggar in the city 
of Pavia, 



THE FATE OF EDELFRIDA. I49 

her hand. His mother had vainly warned him of his 
danger ; but the friendly letters of Offa and the safe 
conduct which he sent had made him neglect her 
advice. He was hospitably received. But at night, 
when he had retired to his chamber, a messenger came 
summoning him to an interview with the king, who 
desired, he said, to confer with him on some matter 
of importance. The young man followed the mes- 
senger without suspicion. On his way he was assas- 
sinated. The princess whom he had sought in 
marriage retired from her father's Court, and spent 
the remainder of her days in the nunnery at Croyland. 
Offa protested his innocence of this atrocious crime, 
and honoured the murdered man by erecting a splendid 
tomb over his remains in the church of Hereford. But 
the common voice fixed the guilt of the deed upon him, 
and attributed to the vengeance which followed it the 
utter destruction of his house. 

Two years afterwards he died. His son Egferth, 
who had been associated in the kingdom nine years 
before, succeeded him, but died within half a year of 
his accession. Thus the race of Offa became extinct. 
Even the bones of the king, it was commonly be- 
lieved, were not permitted to remain in peace. A 
flood swept them away from the chapel, near Bedford 
on the Ouse, in which they had been buried. 

Of Offa's successor, Cenwulf, little need be said. 
He retained his supremacy over Kent, reducing that 
kingdom to subjection when it rebelled against him. 
But the scheme of the Lichfield primacy was given 
up, and Canterbury regained its old honours. The 
Chronicler tells us that he treated the rebel king of 



i5<> 



THE SUPREMACY OF MERCIA. 



Kent with great severity. 1 But generally he was a 
wise and prudent sovereign. But the days of Mercian 
superiority were over. Not many years after his 
death, which took place in 719, the pre-eminence 
passed, as we shall see, to Wessex. 

1 It is only fair to say that all the words which describe his acts of 
cruelty are not found in all MSS. 




XV. 

CAEDMON, BEDE, AND CUTHBERT. 

It will be a relief to turn for a while from the 
record of battle, which makes up so large a portion 
of the story of these times, to say a few words about 
three men who may be said to represent the poetry, 
the general literature and science, and the religion 
of the old English people. For a more detailed 
account of these matters the reader must of course 
go elsewhere ; but it will not be departing from the 
purpose of my " story" if I give a few pages to them 
here. 

The story of Caedmon the Poet will be best intro- 
duced by giving some account of the place where he 
exercised his calling, and this account easily connects 
itself with the narrative which has already been given. 
Before the great battle which was to end in the defeat 
and death of Penda, 1 the Bretwalda Oswy had vowed 
that he would dedicate to the service of God his 
infant daughter Elfleda. The victory won, he gave 
over the child to the care of Hilda, Abbess of the 
convent of Hereten (Hartlepool), herself a lady of the 
royal house, and daughter of one of those who had 

1 See p. 137. 



152 CAEDMON, BEDE, AND CUTHBERT. 

first followed Edwin of Northumbria in his acceptance 
of the Christian faith. A few years afterwards Hilda 
migrated with her young charge to a place further 
to the south, where she had acquired some land. 
The spot is now known by its Danish name of 
Whitby. It was then called by one that signified 
"the light on the hill." Here she founded, and ruled 
until her death in 680, the famous Abbey of Whitby. 
It was during the latter part of this period that 
Caedmon the Poet is supposed to have " flourished." 

It is from Bede that we hear the story of how he 
got his calling to sing, for a calling it emphatically 
was. 

He was a man of middle age, an uneducated 
peasant, " whose talk," as the author of the " Book of 
Wisdom " puts it, " had been of bullocks." Of all men 
he seemed the least likely to have in him any gift 
of song. He had never learnt any poem, and when 
at a feast the custom was observed that all should 
sing in their turn, he would quit his place when he saw 
the harp approaching, and go to his home. It was 
on such an occasion that he had quitted a merry 
company, going out to look after the beasts of 
burden — the horses and oxen — of the guests, of which 
he had undertaken the charge. As he slept, after 
doing his work, one stood by him, and said, " Caed- 
mon, sing me something." " I cannot sing," said 
Caedmon, "and indeed I have come hither from the 
feast, because I could not sing." Then he who spake 
with him said again, "Yet you shall sing to me." 
' What," said he, " shall I sing ? " The other said, 
" Sing the origin of creatures." On hearing this 



CAEDMON'S VISION. 153 

answer, he began forthwith to sing in praise of God 
the Creator verses of which this is the sense. " Now 
ought we to praise the Author of the heavenly 
kingdom, the power of the Creator and His wisdom, 
the acts of the Father of glory — how He, through the 
Eternal God, became the Author of all wonder, the 
Almighty Guardian, who created for the sons of men 
first heaven, to be their roof, and then the earth." 
This is the meaning, but not the order, of the verses 
which he sang in his sleep. 

In the morning the peasant, who had thus become 
a poet, went to the steward of the town lands, and 
told him of his vision and of the power which had 
thus been called out in him. The steward took him 
to Hilda the Abbess, and Hilda bade him tell her his 
dream and recite his verses in the presence of some 
men of learning whom she summoned to hear him. 
They all recognized the reality of his gift, but by 
way of further trial set him another task, a sacred 
history or doctrine which he was to turn into verse. 
This task he performed. Then the abbess advised 
that he should become a monk and enter the monas- 
tery. This he did, and in the monastery he spent 
the rest of his days, days which he occupied with this 
his calling of sacred song. For " he sang," says Bede, 
" of the creating of the earth, and the beginning of 
mankind, and of all the history of Genesis, and of the 
going out of Israel from Egypt, and of their entering 
into the Promised Land, and of many other histories 
of Holy Scripture, as of the Incarnation and Passion 
and Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord, and of 
the coming of the Holy Ghost, and of the teaching 



154 CAEDMON, BEDE, AND CUTHBERT. 

of the apostles. Also he made poems of the terror 
of the judgment to come, and of the terrors of hell, 
and of the sweetness of the heavenly kingdom." 

He died, we may guess, in the year of Hilda's own 
death. For fourteen days he lay sick. Those about 
him did not think that the end was near, but he bade 
them carry him into the chamber to which, according 
to the custom of the monastery, the dying were re- 
moved. Then he asked whether they had the Holy 
sacrament at hand. They doubted whether he was 
so near to death as to need to take it. But he asked 
again for it ; after forgiveness asked for himself from 
all whom he might have wronged, and in like manner 
given to all, he received the communion, and shortly 
afterwards passed peacefully away in his sleep. 

Criticism has been busy with the poem attributed 
to Caedmon, and has not come to any certain con- 
clusion. Briefly stated, the matter stands thus : We 
have Bede's account, as given above, his paraphrase (in 
Latin) of some of Caedmon's verses, and his account 
of the whole poem. Then we have, in King Alfred's 
translation of Bede, some old English verses, which 
are probably a metrical rendering of Bede's prose, but 
which, it is possible, may be quoted from the original 
poem itself. Finally, we have a manuscript, dating 
from somewhere in the eleventh century, which con- 
tains such a poem as Caedmon is described as having 
written. Whether it is his, or imitated from his 
original, or written by some later poet on the lines laid 
down by Bede, are questions which are not to be 
discussed in this place. I shall content myself with 
giving some idea of this work — a great work, beyond 



POETRY OF CAEDMON. 155 

question, whoever may have been its author, which I 
quote from Professor Henry Morley's version : 

" But after as before was peace in Heaven, 
Fair rule of love ; dear unto all the Lord 
Of Lords, the King of Hosts, to all His own, 
And glories of the good who possessed joy 
In Heaven the Almighty Father still increased. 
Then peace was among dwellers in the sky, 
Blaming and lawless malice were gone out, 
And angels feared no more, since plotting foes, 
Who cast off Heaven were bereft of light. 
Their glory seats behind them in God's realm, 
Enlarged with gifts, stood happy, bright with bloom. 
But ownerless since the cursed spirits went 
Wretched to exile within bars of Hell. 
Then thought within II is mind the Lord of Hosts 
How He again might fix within His rule 
The great creation, thrones of heavenly light 
High in the heavens for a better band, 
Since the proud scathers had relinquished them. 
The holy God, therefore, in His great might, 
Willed that there should be set beneath heaven's span, 
Earth, firmament, wide waves, created world, 
Replacing foes cast headlong from their home." 

And here is the poet's grim description of the place 
of torment. It may be noticed how he mingles with 
the Hebrew notion of the penal lire, the Scandinavian 
fancy, bred amidst the rigours of a northern climate, 
of a penal frost : 

" The fiend, with all his comrades, fell 
From Heaven ; angels, for three nights and days 
From Heaven to Hell, where the Lord changed them all 
To devils, because they His Deed and Word 
Refused to worship. Therefore in worse light, 
Under the earth beneath, Almighty God 
Had placed them triumphless in the swart Hell. 
There evening, immeasurably long, 




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bede's life. 157 

Brings to each fond renewal of the fire ; 

Then comes, at dawn, the east wind keen with frost, 

Its dart, or fire contiuual, torment sharp, 

The punishment wrought for them, they must bear." 

Bede (Baeda) was born at Jarrow, in Northumbria, 1 
in the year 673, on the land which was afterwards 
given by King Egferth 2 to the monastery of that 
place. When seven years old he was handed over to 
Benedict (surnamed Biscop), who was thm occupied 
in founding the monasteries of Wearmouth and 
Jarrow. He was first placed in one at Wearmouth, 
the Jarrow house not being then built. He was an 
inmate of one or other of them for the rest of his life, 
and indeed seems very seldom to have quitted their 
walls. That life was, as we shall see, busy, but it 
had few incidents. In his nineteenth year he was 
ordained -deacon (the usual age was twenty-five), and, 
in his thirtieth, priest. Study and devotion occupied 
all his days, and the list of what he did shows that his 
learning and his industry were marvellous. For his 
studies indeed he had remarkable advantages, which 
could hardly have been found elsewhere in England 
at that time. Benedict, the first abbot of the two 
monasteries, had brought with him a library of books 
from Rome and Vienne, and had established relations 
with various seats of learning at home and abroad. 
" Nowhere else could he acquire at once the Irish, the 
Roman, the Gallican, and the Canterbury learning." 3 
Of these he made such ample use, that he may be 
justly called the father of English learning. 

1 Jarrow is the parish, of which South Shields, in Durham, is a 
part. 2 See p. 138. 

3 " Dictionary of Christian Biography " (Bede). 



158 CAEDMON, BEDE, AND CUTHBERT. 

In 734 he made one of the very few journeys, 
possibly the only journey of his life, to pay a visit 
to Egbert, Archbishop of York. The object of this 
unusual exertion — and it is probable that his health 
was even then failing — was to promote the advance- 
ment of knowledge. Egbert was then meditating the 
work by which he has earned the gratitude of all 
English-speaking peoples — the foundation of the 
great School or University of York, the chief home 
of learning in these islands, while Oxford and Cam- 
bridge were nothing more than petty market-towns, 
if indeed so much. 

In the Easter of the year following this visit, Bede's 
days were manifestly drawing to a close. But he 
laboured on to the last. The pathetic story of his 
last hours, told as it has been often before, must not 
be omitted here. He was busy at the time with a 
translation of the Gospel of John into the English 
tongue (this translating of the Scriptures and of the 
chief forms of devotion into the speech of the people 
was a thing very near to his heart). It is one of his 
disciples, Cuthbert by name, who tells the story. He 
goes on : " When the Tuesday before the Ascen- 
sion of our Lord came, he began to suffer still more 
in his health, and a small swelling appeared in his 
feet ; but he passed all that day and dictated cheer- 
fully, and now and then, among other things, said : 
' Go on quickly ; I know not how long I shall hold 
out, and whether my Maker will not soon take me 
away.' But to us he seemed very well to know the 
time of his departure ; and so he spent the night, 
awake, in thanksgiving ; and when the morning ap- 



THE STORY OF BEDE'S DEATH. 159 

peared — that is, Wednesday — he ordered us to write 
with all speed what he had begun, and this done, we 
walked till the third hour with the relics of saints, 
according to the custom of that day. There was one 
of us with him, who said to him : ' Most dear master, 
there is still one chapter wanting ; do you think it 
troublesome to be asked any more questions ? ' He 
answered : * It is no trouble. Take your pen, and 
make ready, and write fast.' Which he did, but at the 
ninth hour, he said to me, ' I have some little articles 
of value in my chest, such as pepper, napkins, and 
incense : run quickly, and bring the priests of our 
monastery to me, that I may distribute among them 
the gifts which God has bestowed on me. The rich 
in this world are bent on giving gold and silver and 
other precious things ; but I, in charity, will joyfully 
give my brothers what God has given unto me.' He 
spoke to every one of them, admonishing and entreat- 
ing them that they would carefully say masses and 
prayers for him, which they readily promised ; but 
they all mourned and wept, especially because he 
said, 'They should no more see his face in this 
world.' They rejoiced for that he said, ' It is 
time that I return to Him who formed me out 
of nothing. I have lived long, my merciful Judge 
well foresaw my life for me ; the time of my dissolu- 
tion draws nigh ; for I desire to die, and to be with 
Christ' Having said much more, he passed the day 
joyfully till the evening ; and the boy, above men- 
tioned, said : ' Dear master, there is yet one sentence 
not written.' He answered : 'Write quickly,' Soon 
after, the boy said, ' It is finished.' He replied : ' It 



l6o CAEDMON, BEDE, AND CUTHBERT. 

is well ; you have said the truth. It is finished. Re- 
ceive my head into your hands, for it is a great 
satisfaction to me to sit facing my holy place, where I 
was wont to pray, that I may also, sitting, call upon 
my Father ! And thus, on the pavement of his little 
cell, singing : ' Glory be to the Father, and to the 
Son, and to the Holy Ghost ; ' when he had named 
the Holy Ghost, he breathed his last, and so departed 
to the heavenly kingdom. All that beheld the blessed 
father's death, said that they had never seen any 
other expire in so much devotion and tranquillity." 

Bede's great work was his " Ecclesiastical History," 
" the most valuable historical work produced in this 
country previous to the seventeenth century," to quote 
Dr. Giles's estimate of it. It is addressed to Ceol- 
wulf, King of Northumbria, and carries down the 
history of this country as far as the year 731. Of 
the thorough honesty of purpose with which it is 
written there can be no question ; nor of the zeal with 
which the author sought for information from all 
available sources. He had his prepossessions. He 
attributes, it may well be thought, too great a share in 
the conversion of England to Augustine and the 
missionaries of Rome ; he gives, accordingly, too 
little credit to the labours of the British preachers. 
But he always did his best to tell the truth as he 
knew it ; and no one can hesitate to allow what he 
asks of the reader : " That if he shall, in this that we 
have written, find anything not delivered according to 
the truth, he will not impute the same to me, who, as 
the true rule of history requires, have laboured sin- 
cerely to commit to writing such things as I could 



THE WORKS OF BEDE. l6l 

gather from common report for the instruction of pos- 
terity." To him, indeed, we owe, in fact, almost all 
the light we have on the doings of the English people 
for nearly the first three centuries after their coming 
to this island. 

The other works of Bede, excepting his biographies 
of St. Cuthbert and of the abbots of Jarrow and 
Wearmouth, have in themselves little interest for 
readers to-day, but they show how great was his 
learning. Among them are Commentaries on many 
of the books of Scripture, elementary treatises on 
such subjects as orthography and the rules of verse, 
scientific treatises on the Seasons, the Equinox, Leap 
Year, &c, hymns and epigrams. It would be 
scarcely too much to say that he had, in as great a 
degree as it has been given to any man to acquire it, 
all the knowledge of his time. He wrote, for the 
most part, in Latin, and of that language his know- 
ledge was large, and, for an uncritical time, exact. 
Its best authors, especially the poets, were well 
known to him. He knew something too of Greek 
and of Hebrew. But with all his knowledge of other 
languages he had a strong love of his own. His 
translations of the Scripture into English are unfor- 
tunately lost ; but how dear this work was to his 
heart may be judged from the fact that his last days 
were given to it, 

Cuthbert was a contemporary of Caedmon, though 
probably a little later, having been born about the 
year 625. He was a native of Northumbria. This, 
it must be remembered, in those days, reached as far 
as the Forth, and Cuthbert was born on what is now 



cuthbert's early history. 163 

the Scottish side of the Border. In early manhood 
he seemed to see, as he was shepherding his flock by 
night, a vision of angels carrying a soul to glory. 
The next day he heard that Bishop Aidan had passed 
away at the very moment when he had seen the 
vision. Immediately he went to the monastery of 
Melrose, 1 a dependent house of the Abbey of Lindis- 
farne. He was admitted into the brotherhood, and 
soon became known for his devotion and energy. 
About 660 he went with his Abbot Eata and other 
monksto occupy a new foundation which aprinceof the 
royal house of Deira had just founded at Ripon. Their 
stay was brief ; the founder had adopted the Roman 
views about the time of observing Easter ; Cuthbert 
and his companions held to the views which they had 
learnt from Columba. 2 They would not give way, 
and the founders sent them back to Melrose. 3 The 
year of their return (it probably took place early in 
661) was a year of pestilence. Among its victims at 
Melrose was Boisil, the Prior. Cuthbert was elected 
into his place. For three years he was diligent in 

1 This was not the house the romantic ruins of which Scott has 
made so famous, but an earlier foundation in a spot known as Old 
Melrose. 

2 The question about Easter is far too complicated to be discussed 
here. Various ways of reckoning the time for observing this festival 
have been used in the Church. There was a cycle of eight, another of 
eighty- four, and a third of nineteen years. The second of these was 
that to which Columba and his disciples adhered. The third was 
backed by the authority of Rome, and is that now employed. 

3 Afterwards Cuthbert changed his views and came 'over to the 
Roman use. We find him denouncing in the strongest terms those 
who still held to his old views, ranking them, in fact, with the worst 
offenders, as quite unworthy of the fellowship of Christian men. 



164 CAEDMON, BEDE, AND CUTHBERT. 

missionary work, going forth from his cell in the 
monastery, often for weeks at a time, to preach to the 
ignorant people round him. These journeys led him 
as far as Pictland on the West Coast In 664 he was 
removed from Melrose to be Prior of the parent house 
at Lindisfarne. This post he filled for twelve years, 
employing himself in the same works of charity and 
piety which had occupied his time at Melrose. In 
678 he seems to have felt that his duty to man had 
been fulfilled, that thenceforward he might devote 
himself to the care of his own soul. He retired to a 
solitary cell which he fixed, first on a lonely spot on 
the mainland, then on the uninhabited island of 
Fame, a few miles to the south of Lindisfarne. His 
own abode was a cell of the narrowest dimensions 
into which no one was permitted to enter ; it was 
furnished with an oratory, and surrounded by a wall 
which shut out all prospect of sea or land. But for 
his visitors — and the fame of his sanctity brought 
many visitors to the spot — he raised a humble build- 
ing. But it was seldom that they were permitted 
to see him. Now and then, when there seemed to be 
some urgent reason for granting the boon, he would 
show his face and give his blessing. 

In this solitude he dwelt for eight years. In 684 
he was persuaded to leave it to fill the office of bishop 
to which he had been chosen at the Synod of Twyford. 
To persuade him, indeed, was no easy task. King 
Egferth had to come in person and urge him to 
accept the office. His old superior, too, Eata, Bishop 
of Lindisfarne, resigned his see to him, taking in 
exchange the bishopric of Hexham. For something 



THE ABBOT OF LINDISFARNE. 165 

less than two years he stayed at Lindisfarne ; then 
he resigned his see, and went forth to his cell at 
Fame. In February, 686, about two months after 
his return, he was seized with his last sickness. The 
abbot of Lindisfarne went to see him and received 
his directions about his burial. Then he left him 
promising soon to return. But stormy weather pre- 
vented him from fulfilling his promise for five days. 
When he came, weakness had mastered the old man's 




ST. cuthbert's cross. 

love of solitude. Cuthbert was waiting for him in 
the building which he had erected for his guests. 
He had been there all the time, longing for his 
return. He consented, too, to the abbot's leaving 
some of the brethren behind to minister to his wants. 
A second time the abbot returned to Farne, for he 
saw that the end was near, and he was anxious to 
change the dying man's purpose about his remains. 



l66 CAEDMON, BEDE, AND CUTHBERT. 

Hitherto he had commanded that they should be 
buried near his cell ; now he consented to their being 
taken to Lindisfarne. The reason he gave for his 
former wish is curiously characteristic of the time. 
He had not grudged the monastery anything that he 
could give it, but he had thought of what would 
be to its good. His fame, he was sure, would lead 
to a sanctuary being established wherever his bones 
might be laid. Criminals would flee to them for 
safety, and the brethren would have trouble with the 
civil power. The dying man was then taken into his 
oratory, where one of the monks watched by him. 
Then the abbot was called in to hear his last words. 
About midnight on the 20th of March he died. He 
had lingered nearly three weeks after the first attack 
of his disease. The abbot waved a torch in either 
hand as a signal to the watchmen at Lindisfarne, and 
he hurried into the church where the monks were 
assembled to tell the news. The next day the body 
was brought to the monastery and buried by the 
altar. It now rests at Durham. The story of its 
wanderings — for Cuthbert in his last hours had en- 
joined on the abbot that the brotherhood must never 
leave it — belongs to a later time, to a time when the 
Danes were a constant terror to the land. 



xvr. 



THE ENGLISH PEOPLE. 



It is time to say something of the political and 
social condition of the people which has now settled 
itself permanently in Britain, though it must be 
premised that some of the details belong to a later 
time. 

It may be considered certain that the English 
tribes, while dwelling in their first home, knew 
nothing of kings. There was a noble and a non- 
noble class among them, individuals of the former 
rising doubtless from time to time, by the force of great 
abilities and on occasion of great national emergency, 
to a commanding position. But there was no per- 
manent monarchy. But this was changed by the 
migration to their new dwelling-place. Perhaps it 
may be said that the emergencies that called for the 
institution of kingship became permanent. Any- 
how, we find the chieftains who led their successive 
bodies of invaders becoming kings of this or that 
region conquered by them, and the monarchy is 
hereditary, though not by any strict principle of 
succession such as now prevails. A minor could be 



1 68 THE ENGLISH PEOPLE. 

passed over in favour of an older kinsman, whose age 
more fitted him for the post ; a weak prince might be 
set aside. But, as time went on, convenience dic- 
tated a more strict observance of the hereditary 
principle, election being found in practice to give 
rise to troubles and disputes. But we never find an 
assertion of what may be described as the jus 
divinum of the pedigree. On the other hand, it 
should be noticed that all the English kings, whether 
tribal or national, belonged to a limited caste. They 
all claimed to be descended from Woden. 

The kingdom was what we call a constitutional 
monarchy, exactly the " hereditary kingship with 
well-defined prerogatives " of Thucydides. The king 
was the chief magistrate in peace, the chief leader in 
war. His actual power differed much with the in- 
dividual who exercised it, but it was military rather 
than civil, nearly absolute in the field, sharply limited 
in civil matters to the administration of justice. But 
the theory of his power continued to develop. In 
the earliest times he was so far on a level with his 
subjects, that his life could be assessed like theirs, 
only at a higher price. The " wer-gild," or blood- 
money of a king, was put at 7,200 shillings, that of a 
ceorl at two hundred. The special sanctity of later 
days had not been invented. But various causes, 
native and foreign, were at work developing it. 
Before the Conquest, it had a rudimentary existence. 

The eorl or earl x was the chief man of the village, 

1 This word must be carefully distinguished from the "earl" of later 
times, a title taking its origin, we may suppose, from the Danish "jarl," 
and superse ling the older designation of "alderman," or, more properly, 
"earldorman." 




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1^0 THE ENGLISH PEOPLE. 

chief, not as the maire of a French village, but in 
virtue of an hereditary nobility. And he was superior 
in wealth as in birth. The earls, in fact, were a terri- 
torial aristocracy, who administered justice in times 
of peace (though we find, as time goes on, professional 
judges beginning to be employed), and led the host 
in times of war. 

The churls (ceorls) formed the mass of the com- 
munity. They were free ; they owned land ; they 
had the right to bear arms. They bore the same 
relation to the earls as did the plebeians to the 
patricians of Rome. Probably they may be traced to 
the same origin ; they were late incomers into the 
community of the original settlers. 

Under the churl came the " laet." He was not a 
freeholder ; he tilled the land of another. I cannot 
do better than describe his position in the words of 
Mr. Green. " In the modern sense of freedom the 
laet was free enough. He had house and home of 
his own ; his life and limb were as secure as the 
ceorl's — save as against his lord ; it is probable from 
what we see in later laws, that as time went on he 
was recognized as part of the nation, summoned, to 
the folk-moot, allowed equal right at law, and called 
like the full freeman to the hosting. But he was 
unfree as regards lord and land He had neither 
part nor lot in the common land of the village. The 
ground which he tilled he held of some free man of 
the tribe, to whom he paid rent in labour or in kind. 
And this man was his lord. Whatever right the 
unfree villager might gain in the general social life of 
his fellow-countrymen, he had no rights as against 



THE SLAVE, THE THANE, THE ALDERMAN. 171 

his lord. He could leave neither land nor lord at his 
will. He was bound to render due service to his lord 
in tillage or in fight. So long, however, as these 
services were done, the land was his own. His lord 
could not take it from him ; and he was bound to 
give him aid and protection in exchange for his 
services." 

Finally came the slave. Sometimes he would 
be of the same race as his master, one who had 
been driven in hard times to sell himself and his 
family for bread, or who had been condemned to a 
servile condition for crime. Sometimes he would be 
a captive in war. Most English prisoners would 
probably be sold abroad, as in the case of those 
whom Gregory saw in the slave-market at Rome ; but 
some, doubtless, would be kept in their captor's 
households. Then there would be some descendants 
of the British tribes whom the English invaders had 
dispossessed. The slave had no rights ; he was a 
living chattel. 

Another class remains to be mentioned, that of the 
thanes (thegns). These were the immediate followers 
of the king ; they may be described as a non- 
hereditary nobility, raised to the rank they bore for 
service done to the king. They constituted his body- 
guard, and, commonly, his personal counsellors. The 
steward, the cup-bearer, the armour-bearer, would be 
among the thanes of early times. Later on, we find 
these simple functions developed into what may be 
called high office of State. 

The alderman (earldorman) was the chief magis- 
trate of a shire or group of shires. His office became 



172 THE ENGLISH PEOPLE. 

more defined and more important as time went on. 
Originally he was the chieftain of a hundred ; and 
doubtless there were aldermen before there were kings. 
He became in after-times the vice-gerent and represen- 
tative of the king for a certain portion of his dominions. 
This growth of importance goes, of course, with the 
growth of unity in the monarchy. The greater the 
king, the greater the alderman. Finally, we see him 
giving place to an official of similar function in the 
earl of the later kingdom. 

The free citizens met in assemblies, town-moots, 
hundred-moots, and the folk-moot. The supreme 
assembly, or Witenagemot, was originally an assembly 
of the whole nation. This soon became an impossi- 
bility. It became consequently more and more 
representative ; but the old principle still retained 
something of its force. When king and nobles and 
prelates, the wise men specially called to take part in 
the deliberations of the assembly, had come to a 
decision, that decision was ratified by cries and clatter 
of arms from the body of freemen, assembled, not so 
much as spectators as an integral part of the 
meeting. 1 

To turn to social matters, it may be said that 
their houses was small, mean, and ill-built. Thus we 
find a king compelled to protect his candles from 
guttering by enclosing them in lanterns. The whole 
story is, as has been observed, an indication of the 



1 Perhaps we may compare them with the presbyters who lay hands 
on candidates for ordination along with the bishops. These represent 
the assenting voice of the whole body of the ministry. 



SOCIAL MATTERS. 173 

rudeness of their domestic appliances. Some of their 
furniture seems to have been of an ornamental and 
even splendid kind. Richly coloured curtains were 
hung upon the walls. Carpets, however, were almost 
unknown, the floors being covered with straw or 
rushes. Fresh layers were put over the old, the latter 
being removed but seldom, an arrangement which 
must have been anything but cleanly, and must have 
had something to do with the frequent plagues which 
we hear of in those times, and with the generally 
shortness of almost all the lives the beginning and 
end of which we happen to know. 

The seats used were commonly benches or stools. 
Chairs with backs were rare luxuries. Tables were 
sometimes of a costly kind. We read of tables of 
silver and gold, and of one particular article made of 
silver, that was worth three hundred pounds. But the 
ordinary articles were probably rough and ill- made. 
We hear of candlesticks and lanterns, but not of 
lamps. Handbells also were in use. 

Bed-linen was in use, at least among the wealthier 
class. Mattresses and pillows were often, if not 
always, made of straw. For warmth, mats and bear 
skins, with, presumably, skins of other animals were 
employed. 

The ordinary drinking cup was probably made of 
horn or wood. But cups of gold and silver, with 
dishes and basons of these metals, were in use among 
the rich, and at the high tables of the wealthier 
monasteries. We find a council of the English 
Church ordering that no vessel of horn should be 
used in worship. Glass was scarcely known. In 



THE FOOD OF THE PEOPLE. 1 75 

Bede's time the English are described as " ignorant 
and helpless of the art of making it." 

The food of the people consisted largely of flesh, 
and of flesh probably the greater part came from 
swine. Swine are frequently mentioned in great 
numbers, as forming part of a man's wealth. Thus 
a nobleman is mentioned as bequeathing two thousand 
swine to his daughter. This animal would be par- 
ticularly useful on account of the fitness of its flesh 
for salting. It must be remembered that for a 
considerable part of the year fresh meat was un- 
known. In this we may trace one of the chief causes 
of disease among the early English. 

Fish was largely in use. Most of the freshwater 
kinds with which we are now familiar occur ; but 
eels have the same predominance among them as 
swine among land animals. Four thousand eels are 
mentioned as having been given by the monks of 
Ramsay to the monks of Peterborough. It is prob- 
ably that freshwater fish was used then, as indeed it 
continued to be used for long afterwards, in much 
greater quantity than at present. Sea fish was com- 
paratively rare, the appliances for catching them 
being ineffective. Thus we hear that Wilfred taught 
the rude people of Sussex to catch fish out of the 
sea, a thing which they had never thought of doing. 
We hear, however, of salmon, herrings, and of the 
common varieties of shell-fish. Porpoises too, a very 
rare sight in these days, are mentioned. 

Wheat and barley were grown ; but the use of the 
former was much less common than it is now. We 
are told of the monks of a certain monastery that 



I76 THE ENGLISH PEOPLE. 

they ate barley bread because their income did not 
permit them as many meals as they needed of the 
vvheaten article. 

Among the other articles of diet we find milk, 
butter, cheese, and honey. To these, as poultry was 
kept, we may add eggs. 

The diet of the richer class was probably largely 
supplemented by game of various kinds, the flesh of 
the deer being the most important. Flying game 
could not be obtained so easily when it had to be shot 
with the arrow or brought down with the sling. The 
most nutritious of English game birds, the pheasant, 
was not introduced ; on the other hand, the huge 
bustard, now extinct in the British islands, was prob- 
ably common. 

Many kinds of fruit were in use. Strawberries and 
raspberries are indigenous to England, but probably 
were not then improved by cultivation. Apples and 
pears were grown in orchards, as also were figs, at 
least in parts of England where the climate favoured 
them. 1 The hazel-nut is of native growth. The 
walnut (as its name " foreign nut " indicates) came 
from abroad, and indeed was probably introduced 
by the Romans, to whom we also owe the cherry. 

Wine was also largely produced, but, as we can 
easily believe, not of a first-rate quality. The Nor- 
man followers of William the Conqueror provided 
themselves, we are told, with a large quantity of wine, 
not venturing to encounter the native English growth. 

The common drinks of the people were ale and 
mead, the latter being made of honey. We hear also 

1 The fig grows luxuriantly in Sussex. 



HUNTING, HAWKS, AND HARPERS. 1 77 

of cider, made from the juice of apples ; and once or 
twice of morat, made from mulberries. 

They sat at table, the women eating with the men. 
Spoons and knives were used. Forks are the in- 
vention of a much later age (not earlier than the six- 
teenth century). 

The chief sport was hunting, of which the English 
were fond, but not with the passionate devotion that 
we find among their Norman conquerors. Deer were 
frequently caught in nets, and sometimes brought 
down with arrows, or hunted down by dogs. Boars 
were killed with spears. Hawks were used for the 
capture of larger birds, especially herons. 

Of indoor games we hear of none but a kind of 
draughts. The wealthy had harpers, gleemen, jesters, 
and tumblers, who amused them at their meals and 
during the long drinking bouts which commonly 
followed them. 




XVII. 

WESSEX AND EGBERT,, 

WESSEX has often been mentioned in the chapters 
which have been devoted to describing the rise and 
fall of Northumbria and Mercia. To these notices 
there is little that we need or indeed that we are able 
to add. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is indeed prin- 
cipally a record of West Saxon doings, but it is 
meagre in the extreme except where it has been 
supplemented from Bede, and Bede, as a Northum- 
brian, makes little mention of Wessex. For the first 
fifty years after the deposition of Ceawlin in 592 
the West Saxons were chiefly occupied in warfare 
with their British neighbours on the west. In 607 
we hear of a battle with the South Saxons, which 
was apparently decisive of West Saxon superiority. 
Some thirty years after came the conversion of the 
royal house to Christianity, followed, probably, at no 
long interval by that of the people. In 672 we have the 
novel incident, novel indeed then, but not at all out 
of agreement with German ways of thinking, 1 of a 

1 Tacitus speaks of the high honour in which the Germans held their 
women and of the royal power which they sometimes bestowed upon 
them. 



STORY OF INA'S ABDICATION. IJQ 

reigning queen. King Cenwalh died, and Sexburh, 
his queen, reigned for one year after him. This was 
in 672-3. Fifteen years later began the reign of the 
most distinguished of the kings who ruled in Wessex 
during its period of depression, Ina. He reigned for 
thirty-eight years, and then resigned his crown, weary 
of the vanity of human things. His supremacy, at 
one period of his reign, was not less than that which 
had been exercised by his predecessor Ceawlin. Kent, 
Sussex, and East Anglia owned his overlordship. 
On the west he pushed the Britons back beyond the 
Parrct, and built a border fortress at Taunton. But 
civil strife, which was again and again the source of 
weakness among the West Saxons, disturbed his 
latter days. 

The story of his abdication is curious, and charac- 
teristic of the times. He and his queen had spent the 
night at one of the royal palaces, and had been splen- 
didly entertained by its keeper. The next morning 
they departed, but after a while Ina was persuaded 
by his queen to turn back. When they reached the 
palace they found that it had been made filthy with the 
dung of cattle, while in the royal bed a sow, with its 
newly-farrowed litter of pigs, had been placed. The 
warden had done this at the Queen's order. Ina 
turned to her for an explanation of so strange a 
sight, and she preached him a sermon on the vanity 
of human greatness, the quick changes which bring 
high things low. The King was so impressed by the 
discourse and its forcible illustration, that he at once 
carried out a purpose which he had long entertained : 
he laid down his crown, went on a pilgrimage to Rome, 



l8o WESSEX AND EGBERT. 

and there spent the remainder of his life in practices 
of devotion. The greatest memorial of himself which 
Ina left behind him was his code of laws, founded on 
the institutions of his people, and itself made the 
groundwork of more complete systems by the rulers 
that came after him. But it must not be forgotten 
that he was one of the most liberal benefactors of his 
race to the churches and monastic foundations of 
Wessex. 

All that is essential for our purpose in the history 
of the next sixty years has already been told, and we 
may pass on at once to the events which led to the 
restoration of the supremacy to Wessex, and ulti- 
mately to the union of the country under one 
crown. 

Egbert, son of Edmund, sub-king of Kent, and 
fourth in descent from Ingild, brother of the great 
Ina, claimed, or had claimed on his behalf, the throne 
of Wessex on the death of Cynewulf (784). He was 
then a boy, according to one account, not more than 
nine years of age. The people preferred his kinsman 
Brihtric ; and Egbert, to save his life, fled to Offa, King 
of Mercia. Offa, though he would not give him up 
to his enemies, was unable or unwilling to shelter him, 
and the young prince made his way to the Court of 
Charles the Great (Charlemagne). Charles was then 
in the midst of his career of conquest, and Egbert, 
though we know no particulars of his life during these 
years, probably served in his armies. But Charles 
was not only a conqueror ; he was a ruler also, as 
grgcit in peace as he was in war. The countries which 
he subdued he made into a great empire, divided into 




CHARLEMAGNE. 
(From the painting by Durer.) 



182 WESSEX AND EGBERT. 

kingdoms, duchies, and counties, each with its proper 
governor, and all governed by equal laws. 1 

On Christmas Day, 800, Charles was crowned by 
Pope Leo III. at Rome, and proclaimed Caesar 
Augustus, the successor of the old Emperors of 
Rome. Egbert was present at the ceremony. That 
year, or very soon afterwards, he heard of his own 
accession to the throne of his native country. King 
Brihtric was dead, poisoned by his wife. She had 
mixed the draught for a young man of whom she 
was jealous, and her husband drank it by mistake. 
Egbert, who was now the only descendant of the old 
Wessex kings, was chosen in his absence. He seems 
to have set himself to carry out the plans which he 
had learnt to form in the company of the Emperor 
Charles. He had a long and hard struggle before 
him. For twenty years and more he was engaged in 
a conflict with Mercia. In 823 came his success, and, 
if the Saxon Chronicle is to be believed, came all at 
once. "In this year Egbert, King of the West Saxons, 
and Beornwulf, King of the Mercians, fought at Elian- 
dune [probably Wilton, near Salisbury]. Egbert 
gained the victory. The slaughter was very great. 
Then the King sent his son Ethelfulf, with Ealstan 
the Bishop and Wulfhard the Count, into Kent with 
a great army. These put to flight Baldred, King of 
Kent, in the northern part of that region near the 
river Kent. After this the people of Kent and of 

1 See " Germany," Story of the Nations (pp. 58-91). There could 
not then have been a better place than this for Egbert to prepare 
himself for his future work. In Charles's camps he learnt the art of 
war, and in him saw how a great kingdom might be ruled wisely and 
justly. 



KING EGBERT'S CONQUESTS. 183 

Surrey, and the South Saxons, and the East Saxons, 
came over to him. And these in former times had 
been unjustly wrested from his ancestors. In this same 
year also the King of the East Angles and his people 
begged King Egbert to make peace with them and to 
be their protector. This they did for fear of the 
Mercians. In this year also the East Angles slew 
Beornwulf, King of the Mercians." We may guess 
that many things had been preparing the way for this 
result, and that the success was not quite as sudden 
as is here described. Anyhow, Egbert was now over- 
Jord of Southern and Western England. Four years 
later his dominion was largely extended. I quote again 
from the Saxon Chronicle : " In this same year (827) 
King Egbert subdued the kingdom of the Mercians, 
and all the region that is to the south of the Humber. 
. . . He also led an army to Dore [probably in York- 
shire] against the men of Northumbria. But they, 
meeting him there, offered him submission and peace; 
after that they parted from each other." The Chroni- 
cler tells us that Egbert was " the eighth king that 
was Bretwalda." The title itself had become extinct 
for some time, the last holder having been Oswin of 
Northumbria, who died in 670. It was now revived 
and given to Egbert. There is no doubt that his 
power was superior to that exercised by any of his 
predecessors, and, indeed, was such as to entitle him 
to be called " King of England." We must not sup- 
pose, however, that all England was subject to him in 
the same way that his own dominions of Wessex were 
subject. Probably the relations between him and the 
other English princes were various. Kent, with which 



184 WESSEX AND EGBERT. 

he was connected by birth, and which was ruled by 
his son, may be said to have been as much subject to 
him as was Wessex itself. Northern England re- 
tained, it would seem, more independence. Mercia 
was not absolutely conquered till long afterwards, 
while Northumbria, by its voluntary acknowledgment 
of Egbert's supremacy, preserved its freedom practi- 
tically entire. 

It was not only over the English that Egbert gained 
his successes. The British kingdoms also felt his 
power. In the year 828 he led an army against the 
" North Britons," i.e., the inhabitants of North Wales, 
and made them all humbly obedient to him. The 
Celtic kings of Cumberland and Strathclyde probably 
followed the same course, as did the Northumbrians, 
and escaped attack by a submission which left them 
still free. 

Egbert died in 836, but not till he had seen the first 
beginnings of another great movement of races, which 
was to trouble for many years, and in the end to over- 
throw, the kingdom which he had built up. Afte r 
some four centuries of conflict, first against the Britons, 
then among themselves, the English had been wrought 
into one power. And now another stock of their own 
race, under the names of Danes, Northmen, Normans, 
was beginning to bring that power to the ground. So 
important a subject demands a new chapter. 



XVIII. 



THE SUCCESSORS OF EGBERT, AND THE DANES. 



We have seen that for more than a hundred years 
before the end of the Roman dominion, the eastern 
and southern shores of Britain were ravaged by fleets 
of pirates from Northern and Eastern Europe. We 
have also seen that when the Roman armies were 
withdrawn, these ravages became more serious and 
more constant ; that, in fact, the plunderers became 
conquerors, and possessed themselves of the whole 
island, the mountainous and remote districts of the 
west excepted. When this conquest was complete, 
the visits from these dwellers in the North and East 
ceased altogether. For two hundred and fifty years 
after Uffa landed on the coast of Norfolk, and founded 
the kingdom of East Anglia, the rovers either stopped 
at home, or busied themselves with other expeditions- 
For some time a feeling of kinship would prevent them 
from invading the new dwelling-places of their own 
relatives. Afterwards the southward movement of 
other tribes left them room to expand. Indeed, the 
natives of the old English, Jutish, and Saxon regions 
from which the conquerors came forth, do not seem 
to have ever sent out again any great number of 



l86 THE SUCCESSORS OF EGBERT AND THE DANES. 

adventurers. The rovers of the sea, of whom we 
shall hear so much for the next hundred and fifty 
years, came from more northern parts, from the 
peninsula and islands of Denmark, from the coasts 
of Sweden and Norway. The Irish Chronicles speak 
of them as of two races, the Fingalls {fair strangers), 
whom we may identify with the Swedes and Norwe- 
gians, and the Dubhgalls {dark strangers), in whom 
we recognize the Danes. The latter seem to have 
been, as they have often shown themselves in later 
times, the stronger and the ruling race, and this is the 
name by which they will be known in the story which 
we have now to tell. 

In 753 we hear of a landing in the Isle of Thanet ; 
but there is nothing to show who were the invaders. 
The first express mention of the Danes by the Saxon 
Chronicler is under the year ySy. " In these days 
there came for the first time three ships of the North- 
men to the land of the Herethi [probably Dorset- 
shire]. The King's lieutenant rode thither, and would 
have made them come to the King's house, for he 
knew not who they were. But there was he slain. 
These were the first ships of the Danes that came 
into England." Ten years later we hear of them on 
the east coast. " Certain Pagans made ravages among 
the Northumbrians, and plundered the monastery 
which is at the mouth of the Wear. One of their 
chiefs was slain, and sundry of their ships wrecked. 
Many of the men were drowned, and such as reached 
the harbour alive were straightway slain." Little 
mercy then, as afterwards, was shown on either side. 

For some years after this date the Saxon Chronicle 



THE PAGANS WASTE SCEAPIGE. 1 87 

makes no mention of the Northmen. We learn from 
other sources indeed that they plundered Hii (Iona) 
in 808, and they were certainly seen elsewhere along 
the coasts of Europe, even as far south as the Medi- 
terranean. It may have been to this time that the 
story told of the Emperor Charles x refers. He was 
visiting one of the seaport towns of Southern France 
when some fast-sailing, square-rigged ships were 
spied. No one knew to what nation they belonged. 
Some thought that they came from Africa, others 
that they belonged to British traders. A message 
came that the crews had landed, and were plundering 
the shore. Immediately all seized their arms and 
hastened to the harbour. The Northmen, hearing 
that the Emperor was in the place, and not feeling 
themselves strong enough to fight with him, hastened 
back to their ships and set sail. As Charles from his 
window watched them depart, he burst into tears. 
" I do not weep," he said, " because I fear that these 
wretches can do me any harm. I grieve because they 
have dared, even while I am yet alive, to show them- 
selves upon these coasts, and because I dread the 
evil which they will do to my descendants." To- 
wards the close of his reign Egbert came into 
collision with these terrible enemies. Under the 
date 832 the Chronicle has : " In this year the Pagans 
wasted Sceapige [Sheppey — ' Sheep Island ']. The 
next year they came in greater force. " In this year 
King Egbert fought with thirty-five pirate ships at 
Carrum [Charmouth, in Dorsetshire]. The slaughter 
was great, but the pirates held the field of battle." 

1 Charles died in 812. 



l88 THE SUCCESSORS OF EGBERT AND THE DANES, 

This means, of course, that the King was defeated. 
He is said to have been so much alarmed by this 
disaster that he summoned a council of sub-kings 
and nobles 1 to meet him in London and devise 
measures of defence against the new enemy. Such 
measures were needed, for in 835 the Danes returned 
in greater force than before. " In this year a great 
array of ships came to the Britons of the West 
Country, and made alliance with them against 
Egbert, King of Wessex. When the King heard 
of the matter, he marched with his army against 
them, and fought with them at Hengesterdun 
[Hengston Hill, in Cornwall]. Then he put to flight 
both the Britons and the Danes. The King is said to 
have severely punished the Britons for their share in 
this treaty, banishing all of their race from his do- 
minions." In the following year he died, and was 
succeeded by his son Ethelwulf, then sub-king of 
Kent. This office Ethelwulf handed on to his own 
son, Athelstan. 

For some years the history of England is little but 
a history of continual struggle between its people and 
the Danish invaders. In 837 two great battles were 
fought, one at Southampton, where the rovers, who 
had come with a fleet of thirty-three ships, were 
defeated ; another at Portland, where the alderman 
Ethelhelm, with a following of the men of Dorset- 
shire, after being successful during the greater part of 
the day, was finally beaten and slain. The following 

1 Lappenberg (ii. 8) mentions a Mercian charter, published at this 
time, which bears the signature of the bishops, but not nf the kings 
whom they represented. These are supposed to have been engaged at 
the Council in London. 



ALDERMAN EALCHER. 1 89 

years brought still worse disasters. " The Alderman 
Herebright, and many of the men of the Marshes, 
were slain by the Pagans." It is not clear who are 
meant by the " men of the Marshes." Possibly they 
may have been the inhabitants of the low-lying 
shore between Hythe and Hastings. The east coast, 
as far north as Lincolnshire, was attacked in the 
same years. " Many men in Lindsey [North Lin- 
colnshire], and East Anglia and Kent were slain by 
their army." The following year there was " a great 
slaughter in London, Canterbury, and Rochester ; " 
and in the year after again, " King Ethelwulf fought 
at Carrum [Charmouth] with thirty-five ships of the 
pirates ; and the Danes held the field of battle." 

A few years afterwards we find a bishop taking the 
field against the invaders. This was in Somersetshire, 
near the mouth of the Parret, when the Danes had 
landed, the men of Dorsetshire and Somersetshire 
combining to resist them. In 851 came a more 
formidable attack than ever, and afterwards a time 
of rest. The Chronicler thus relates the events. " In 
this year the Alderman Ceorl, with the men of 
Devonshire, fought with an army of the pagans at 
Wensbury (?;, and made a great slaughter of them, 
and won the victory. In the same year King Athel- 
stan [of Kent] and the Alderman Ealcher fought a 
battle at sea, and routed a great fleet at Sandwich in 
Kent, taking nine ships, and putting the rest to flight. 
The Pagans also now for the first time abode in 
winter quarters at Thanet. And the same year there 
came three hundred and fifty ships to the mouth of 
the Thames, and went up, and took by storm Canter- 



190 THE SUCCESSORS OF EGBERT AND THE DANES. 

bury and London, and put to flight Beortvvulf, King 
of the Mercians, and his army. Then they went 
southwards across the Thames into Surrey ; and 
then King Ethelvvulf and his son Ethelbald fought 
against them with an army of the West Saxons. 
And the King and his men made a greater slaughter 
of them than had ever before been made of the 
Pagans, and gained the victory." The wintering of 
the Danes in Thanet is a very significant fact. It is 
not expressly said when it took place ; probably it 
was in the winter before the battles here mentioned, 
and the huge army which Ethelwulf defeated came 
with the hope of making a permanent settlement in 
the country. 

It would be tedious to relate all the Danish 
incursions of which the Chronicle makes mention. 
In 854 we find the " Pagans " wintering in Sheppey. 
For years afterwards they land in Kent, where the 
people vainly endeavour to purchase peace. The 
Danes take the money, but the same night secretly 
leave the camp and plunder all the eastern part of 
the country. The year following they make a 
descent on East Anglia, where, says the Chronicle, 
"they became horsemen, and the people made a peace 
with them." It was in East Anglia that they gained 
their strongest hold of the country. To this day that 
part of England, in its names, and in the character of 
its population, shows many traces of their presence. 
In 868 we find them in Mercia, at Nottingham, that 
is, in the very heart of England. King Ethelred 
besieged them there. There is nothing memorable 
about the war, for the Mercians seem to have soon 



THE LINDSEY MEN DEFEAT THE DANES. igi 

come to terms with the invaders, except that a 
notable person, Alfred, the King's youngest brother, 
of whom I shall have much to say hereafter, was 
present at the siege. The next year the Pagans took 
possession of York ; and in the next again (870) they 
took up their winter quarters at Thetford in Norfolk. 
Two picturesque stories now relieve the dreary record 
of these incessant conflicts. 

The men of Lindsey encountered and defeated, 
with the loss of three of their kings, a Danish army 
which had issued from York. It was only the dark- 
ness that saved them from total destruction. But 
after nightfall the Danes were joined by a numerous 
body of their countrymen. The English, who were 
under the command of the Alderman Alfgar, were so 
terrified by the news that out of eight thousand two 
thousand only had the courage to remain with their 
leader. These Alfgar arrayed the next day in order 
of battle, commanding himself the centre, and placing 
the Alderman of Lincoln on the left and Morcar on 
the right. Chiefs and soldiers received the com- 
munion, and awaited the attack of the Pagans in 
close, wedgelike array. All day long the Danes 
assailed them in vain. Towards evening they used 
the stratagem of a feigned flight. The Saxons 
pursued without heeding the advice of their leaders 
to be cautious. When they were scattered over the 
field, the Danes turned upon them, and destroyed 
them almost to a man. From the field of battle the 
Danes proceeded to the Abbey of Croyland. The 
abbot had hidden his treasures, and sent his monks 
to hide themselves in the marshes. Only a few old 



THE STORY OF KING EDMUND. 193 

men and children were left in the building. The abbot 
was slain as he was singing mass at the high altar, and 
all that were with him shared his fate, except one 
lad, Thurgar by name, on whom one of the Danish 
earls had pity, and who escaped a few days after- 
wards. From Croyland the Pagans went on to 
Peterborough. The monastery held out for a day 
against them, and one of their chiefs was wounded 
by a stone, it is said, in the attack. In revenge the 
Danes put every one to the sword, and burnt church 
and monastery to the ground. Within a few days 
the Abbey of Ely shared the same fate. Standing, 
as it did, on a hill surrounded by marshes, it seemed 
a safe place, and vast treasures had been collected 
there from all parts. Everything was plundered or 
destroyed by the Pagans. 

The story of King Edmund is assigned to the year 
870. He was the sub-king of East Anglia, and, 
venturing to attack a Danish force that issued from 
Thetford, was defeated. He fled from the field of 
battle, and hid himself under a bridge. But the 
glitter of his golden spurs as they shone in the 
moonlight revealed his presence to a passer-by, and 
he betrayed the King to the Danes. Hingvar, the 
Danish chief, offered Edmund his life if he would 
give up the Christian faith — so ran the story which 
his sword-bearer used to tell in after years in the 
Court of Athelstane, and which Archbishop Dunstan 
heard from his lips, and handed down to us. When 
he refused, the Danes bound him to a tree, and shot 
their arrows at him. At last Hingvar commanded 
that he should be beheaded. His remains were 



194 THE SUCCESSORS OF EGBERT AND THE DANES. 

privately buried by his followers, and afterwards 
removed to a town which afterwards received the 
name of St. Edmundsbury, and in which a splendid 
monastery was erected in his honour by the Danish 
king Canute. 

East Anglia and Mercia were now helpless ; but in 
Wessex the invaders met with an obstinate resist- 
ance. Early in the year they took up a position at 
Reading, which they strengthened with a rampart, 
constructed between the Thames and the Kennet. 1 
A Danish division, which had gone as far as Engle- 
field (near Staines, and as much as twenty miles from 
Reading), was attacked by Ethelwulf, Alderman of 
Berkshire, and defeated with great loss. Ethelwulf 
then joined his forces with those of the king, and 
attacked the Danes at Reading. The battle went 
against the English, and Ethelwulf was slain. Four 
days afterwards there was another fight at Ashdune 
(the Hill of the Ash). 2 Both armies were strong, and 
both threw up earthworks for defence. The Danes 
were commanded by two kings, who held the centre 
of the line, and a number of earls, who were posted 
on the two wings. The English, on the other hand, 
were led by King Ethelred and his younger brother 
Alfred. Alfred was the first to set his division in 
motion ; Ethelred, who Was busy hearing mass in his 
tent, and who would not stir till the divine office was 

1 The Kennet flows through Reading town ; the Thames is about 
a mile distant. The ground between the two rivers is level, and 
the rampart was probably intended to fortify this side of the posi- 
tion. 

2 Probably not far from Lambourne Downs in West Berkshire. Ash- 
down Park and Ashbury preserve the name, 



BATTLE OF ASH DUNE. 1 95 

finished, was a long time in following him. Alfred, 
who was certainly not wanting in piety, refused to 
wait, and attacked the Danish wings. It had been 
arranged that the centre should be left to Ethelred. 
For a time the young prince bore the whole brunt of 
the battle. The crest of the hill was occupied by the 
Danes ; the English came up from below to close 
with them. On the slope was a stunted thorn-tree 
("which I myself," says the Chronicler, "have seen 
with my own eyes "), and it was here that the battle 
raged most fiercely. After a long struggle the 
Danes gave way. One of their kings fell on the field, 
and with him perished five earls and many thousand 
men. The survivors fled in confusion to " the strong- 
hold from which they had sallied " (probably Read- 
ing), the English pursuing and slaying all they could 
reach. " Fourteen days after the struggle was re- 
newed at Basing, in North Hampshire." This time 
the Danes were victorious. King Ethelred was 
wounded, and died " after Easter " (Easter fell this 
year on April 19th). 

This narrative of the Danish war has carried me 
out of the chronological order of events. A short 
account of the successors of Egbert will complete this 
sketch of English history down to the time which I 
have now reached. 

Ethelwulf, Egbert's son and immediate successor, 
was brought up by Swithun, a priest of Winchester, 
and was, perhaps, better fitted for a cloister than for 
a throne. In his first year (839) he formed the pur- 
pose of making a pilgrimage to Rome, though so 
closely was he occupied with the Danish wars, that 



B RITAIN 
827-829 




MAP 3 — A.D. 827. 



IValker & Boutall se. 



ETHELRED SUCCEEDS ETHELBERT. 197 

he was unable to carry it into effect till 855. In this 
year " he went to Rome in great state, and dwelt 
there for the space of twelve months." He gave 
many costly gifts to the churches, the clergy, and the 
people of Rome ; and rebuilt the Saxon school, which 
had been destroyed by fire. According to some 
accounts the tax called " Peter's Pence " began in an 
endowment which Ethelwulf gave for the singing of 
masses for his soul. On his way home he was hos- 
pitably entertained by King Charles the Bald, whose 
daughter Judith he married. Judith was then twelve 
years old. 

Something in the King's conduct, possibly this 
marriage, and the following elevation of Judith to the 
rank of queen, a title which no wife of a West Saxon 
king had held since the days of Sexburh, 1 seems to 
have offended his subjects. Anyhow we find his son 
Ethelbald conspiring with some of the bishops and 
nobles to prevent his return. The result was a com- 
promise, and Ethelwulf contented himself with the 
eastern division of his kingdom. He died in 858, and 
was succeeded by his second and third sons (the 
eldest had died some years before). Ethelbald con- 
tinued to reign in Wessex, of which, as has been said, 
he had made himself master before his father's death ; 
Ethelbert took the eastern sub-kingdoms for his 
share, but, on his elder brother's death in 860, suc- 
ceeded to the whole. He died in 866, and was 
succeeded by his next brother, Ethelred. Ethelred's 
reign of five years was, as we have seen, wholly 
occupied with the Danish war. Both he and Ethel- 

1 See p. 179. 



198 THE SUCCESSORS OF EGBERT AND THE DANES. 

bert left children, but it was not a time when children 
could reign. A king was wanted who could lead his 
armies in person, and Alfred, the youngest of the sons 
of Ethelwulf, was called to the throne. 




XIX. 

ALFRED, THE MAN OF WAR. 

It is a happy circumstance that when we come to 
the greatest of England's early kings, perhaps we may 
say, the greatest of all kings that she has ever had, 
we find, for the first time, the story of his life told by 
one who knew him well. Asser, a Welshman by 
birth, and brought up in what we may call the 
Cathedral School of St. David's, has left a book 
entitled, " Annals of the Deeds of Alfred the Great." 
It abounds with little personal touches. The writer 
tells of Alfred's prowess as a hunter, and tells us that 
he has often seen proofs of it himself. He describes 
the battle of Ashdown, and speaks of the " stunted 
thorn tree," round which the battle raged most 
fiercely, as seen with his own eyes. In short, he lived 
with the great king as with a friend, and draws him, 
so to speak, from the life. 1 

Alfred was born in 849 at Wantage, in Berkshire, 
the youngest of the five sons of King Ethulwulf and 
Osburga, daughter of Oslac, the royal cupbearer. 

1 I must not conceal from my readers that the genuineness of Asser's 
"Life of Alfred" has been doubted. But the great weight of com- 
petent opinion is in favour of receiving it. 



200 ALFRED, THE MAN OF WAR. 

Oslac was of Jutish race, and traced his descent 
from Stuf, one of the two brothers to whom Cerdic 
gave the Isle of Wight. The King seems to have 
had a special affection for his youngest son. He sent 
him in his fifth year, with a great train of nobles, to 
Rome, where Pope Leo IV. is said to have anointed 
him king, a strange thing if, indeed, it be true, 1 as the 
boy had then three, if not four, brothers older than him- 
self. Another visit to Rome, this time in company with 
his father, is recorded by Asser under the year 855. 

" As he grew through infancy and boyhood," says 
the Chronicler, " he was seen to be more comely of 
form than his brothers, more gracious in look and 
speech and manner of life. From his cradle there 
was implanted in him by the nobility of his disposi- 
tion a love of wisdom above all other things. Never- 
theless, shameful to relate, by the unworthy neglect 
of his parents and tutors, he remained wholly un- 
taught till the twelfth year of his age, and even 
beyond. Nevertheless, listening with thoughtful 
attention night and day to Saxon poems as they were 
recited by others, he teachably kept them in remem- 
brance. In hunting of every kind he practised 
assiduously and with success ; no one could compare 
with him for skill and good fortune in this matter, 
as we have ourselves often witnessed. Now on a 
certain day his mother 2 showed to him and his 

1 Asser could hardly have had personal knowledge of it. 

2 If the story is true, this must have been his stepmother Judith. 
His own mother is said to have died when he was seven years old. 
Judith was married to Ethelwnlf in the year 856, and when she came 
to England Alfred was in his thirteenth year. 



ALFRED AS A SCHOLAR. 201 

brothers a certain book of Saxon poetry which she 
had in her hand, and said, ' Whoever of you shall 
most quickly learn this book shall have it, to him 
will I give it' Fired by these words, and verily by 
a divine inspiration, and greatly charmed also by the 
beauty of the first letter of this book, he made answer 
to his mother, ' Wilt thou verily give this book to 
one of us, even to him who shall most speedily be 
able to understand it, and to repeat it before thee ? ' 
Thereupon she laughed in much joy, and said, 'Verily 
I will give it to him.' Thereupon he took it out of 
her hand, and going to his teacher read it, and having 
read it, brought it back to his mother and recited it. 
After this he learned the daily course, that is, the 
Hours ; and after these certain Psalms and many 
prayers, which, collected in one volume, he kept day 
and night in his bosom, as I have myself seen, carry- 
ing it about with him incessantly to assist him in his 
prayers, amidst all the business of his life. . . . This 
he would declare, with many deep sighs, to have been 
one of the greatest hindrances of his life, that when 
he was of the age to learn, and had leisure and 
capacity, he could not find teachers ; but when he 
was more advanced in years, he suffered from diseases 
unknown to all physicians of the island, and was 
harassed by the cares of sovereignty within and with- 
out, and was distracted by incessant attacks of the 
heathen so that he could not read." 

We shall see that, in spite of these hindrances, 
Alfred contrived to do much good work in the way 
of reading and writing. The chief of the ailments 
from which he suffered s.eems to have been epilepsy. 



202 ALFRED, THE MAN OF WAR. 

In his twentieth year he married Ealswith, daughter 
of Ethelred, Alderman of Lincolnshire, and in the 
midst of the wedding festivities, was struck down by 
an attack of this disease. The fits recurred frequently 
during the remainder of life, and, as he died in the 
prime of his manhood (his fifty-first year), probably 
shortened it. 

The story of Alfred up to the time of his accession 
to the throne has already been told. Ethelred, we 
have seen, died about the end of April in the year 
871. Within a month the new king was called to 
renew his struggle with the invaders. " He fought," 
says Asser, " against the whole army of the Pagans 
at a certain hill called Wilton that is on the south 
bank of the river Willy, from which river the whole 
county T is named, having but few men with him." 
After a fierce fight, in which Alfred had at first the 
upper hand, the Danes remained masters of the field 
of battle. Both sides were now exhausted. Eight 
battles, and skirmishes without number, had been 
fought in a single year, with a loss of men which it 
was impossible to estimate. Peace was made, and 
for a time Wessex was free from Danish attacks. 

The supremacy attained by Egbert had for the 
time ceased to exist ; and the treaty made by Alfred 
with the invaders did nothing for the rest of England. 
Mercia and Northumbria had to deal on their own 
account with the Danes, and sometimes resisted, 
sometimes made terms with them. East Anglia was 
wholly in their power. In 874 Buhred, King of 
Mercia, driven to despair by what he saw about him, 

1 Wiltshire. 



THE NORTHMEN CONQUER NORTHUMBRIAN 203 

fled from England, and sought refuge in Rome, where 
he died soon after his arrival. The Danes became 
undisputed masters of Mercia, where they appointed 
as sub-king a certain " foolish lord " of Buhred, 
foolish, doubtless, because he was willing to accept 
so thankless an office. He was to answer for the 
tribute, and peaceably to surrender up his power 
whenever they should demand it. 

In the following year Northumbria was conquered, 
and even the country north of the Tyne was ravaged. 
An independent squadron of six pirate ships found its 
way the same year to the south coast. King Alfred en- 
countered them, captured one, and put the rest to flight. 

In 876 this was followed by a more formidable 
attack by the main body of the Danes in England. 
The three kings, Guthrum, Oskylet, and Amund, who 
had wintered at Cambridge, took ship, and sailing 
westward, seized the town of Wareham in Dorset- 
shire. Alfred made a treaty with them, paying at 
the same time, according to one account, a sum of 
money, and they vowed in the most solemn manner 
that they would leave his kingdom. This promise 
was at once broken, for some of their horsemen made 
their way into Devonshire, and surprised the strong- 
hold of Exeter. 

After this things grew worse and worse. Streams 
of Northmen poured into the only part of the island 
that still held out against them. Alfred constructed 
a fleet, but, in default of English seamen, was obliged 
to man it with " pirates." With his army he 
besieged Exeter. A Danish fleet of a hundred and 
twenty ships, after being detained at sea by rough 



204 ALFRED, THE MAN OF WAR. 

weather for a whole month, was seen off Swanwick. 
The King's ships encountered, attacked, and, unless 
the Chronicles exaggerate, entirely destroyed the in- 
vaders. The Danish leaders in Exeter now agreed 
to give up that place. But they only changed the 
scene of their ravages, seizing the " royal town " of 
Chippenham in Wiltshire. At the same time another 
Danish fleet was ravaging the north coast of Devon- 
shire (Kenwith near Bideford). Here they met with 
a fierce resistance. "The Pagans," says Asser, "seeing 
that the fort was altogether unprepared, except that 
it had walls after our fashion, but that it was im- 
pregnable and safe on all sides save the eastern (as I 
have myself seen), determined to blockade it. For 
they thought that the men therein would speedily 
surrender under constraint of hunger and thirst, there 
being no water. But things did not so turn out ; for 
the Christians, before they were reduced to such 
straits, by divine inspiration, judging it better either 
to conquer or to die, at dawn made a sudden sally on 
the Pagans, and slew many of the enemy, together 
with their king, a few only escaping to their ships. 
They took also no little spoil, in the which was the 
standard which they call the Raven. This standard 
the three sisters of Heinga and Habba wove, finish- 
ing it in one single noontide. They say also that 
every battle, whensoever this standard went before 
the host, if they were to win the day, then would be 
seen in the midst of it as it were a live raven flying ; 
but if, on the other hand, they were to be conquered, 
it would hang straight down and wave not at all. 
And this was often proved to be true." 



THE STORY OF THE CAKES. 205 

With Alfred himself things were going very badly. 
His kingdom had, for the time, passed from him. 
He was not, as is sometimes represented, a lonely 
fugitive ; some following he always had. Ethelnoth, 
Alderman of Somersetshire, and a few nobles are 
said to have been with him. " With these," says 
Asser, " he led a troubled life in the woodland parts 
of Somersetshire, not having any means of living 
except such as he could take by frequent forages 
from the Pagans and from such of the Christians as 
had submitted themselves to them." 

Here comes in the famous story of the cakes, which, 
told as it has been already a thousand times, must be 
told once more. "It fell out on a certain day that 
a countrywoman, the wife of a certain herdsman with 
whom the King sojourned, was baking cakes at the 
fire. And the King sitting by the hearth made ready 
his bow and arrows and other implements of warfare. 
But when the woman saw that the cakes set by the 
fire were burning, she ran in haste and took them 
away, reproaching the valiant king, and saying, ' Why 
dost thou tarry to turn the cakes which thou seest 
burning, seeing how glad thou art to eat them when 
they are baked ? ' " r 

At Athelney (the " Island of Princes "), a place 
between Taunton and Somersetshire, where a marsh 
had been formed by the confluence of the Parret and 
the Thone, Alfred constructed a fort. 1 This served 

1 Translated by Dr. Giles into modern Somersetshire : 

" Ca'sn thee mind the keaks, man, and doossen zee 'em burn ? 
I'm boun thee's eat them vast enough, az zoon az tiz the turn." 

2 An interesting memorial of his presence at this place is to be seen 



206 ALFRED, THE MAN OF WAR. 

as a base of his operations. His subjects, inspirited 
by his dauntless courage, began to gather round 
him, and it was not long before he felt himself able 
to attack the invaders. 1 It was after he had been 
making preparations for seven months at Athelney 
that he met the men of Hampshire, Wiltshire, and 
Somersetshire on the eastern border of Selwood 
Forest. " When they saw the King, they welcomed 
him, as was fitting, with great joy as one that was 
alive again after many and great troubles. Two days 
afterwards they attacked the Danish army at Ethan- 
dun, probably Eddington near Westbury, in Wilt- 
shire. There they fought "bravely and steadfastly 
against all the army of the Pagans." The battle 
was long and obstinate, but in the end the Danes 
gave way, and Alfred pursued them to their camp. 
Fourteen days afterwards, the besieged, worn out by 
hunger, for they probably had made no provision 
against a siege, sent envoys to beg for a truce. They 
offered to give as many hostages as Alfred might 
require, to ask none in return, and to leave the king- 
dom as speedily as possible. These terms were 
accepted. King Guthrum, with thirty of his chiefs, 
was baptized, Alfred himself standing as his sponsor, 
and giving him the second name of Athelstan. This' 
took place in the early summer of 878. Guthrum 

in a bracelet of gold, found at Athelney, and now preserved in the 
Ashmolean Museuoi at Oxford. It bears the inscription JElfred het 
mek gewircait, "Alfred commanded me to be made." 

1 The romantic story of how the King disguised himself as a harper, 
made his way into the Danish camp, and learnt the numbers and 
plans of the enemy, is not found in Asser. It may be true, but it 
does not rest on good authority. 



PIRATES BEATEN AT SEA. 20 J 

went to Cirencester, and the next year retired to 
East Anglia. There he remained till the end of his 
life, in 890, faithful to his compact. 

Alfred had saved his kingdom, and had hence- 
forward some leisure for the duties of a wise and far- 
seeing ruler, but a half, and that the greater half of 
England, was lost to the English. Wessexand the 
sub-kingdom of Kent still belonged to the King. 
English Mercia, reaching as far as the Ribble on the 
north, acknowleged his supremacy. Wales and Corn- 
wall probably paid him some show of homage. But 
much of Central and all Eastern England was 
practically a foreign, and almost a hostile, country. 
It was thenceforward the Dane-country, the Dane- 
lazv. Any allegiance that it paid to the English king 
was paid for the time only, and under the constraint 
of superior strength. Sometimes it became actively 
hostile. And when the Danes set about a regular 
conquest of England, as they may be said to have 
done about a hundred years after Alfred's death, they 
found at least half their work done ready to their 
hand. 

But for the time there was relief. Independent 
freebooters still roamed the sea. We hear, for instance 
under the year 882, how King Alfred went out to sea 
with his fleet, and fought with four pirate ships of the 
Danes, and how he took two of them, when their 
crews had been slain, and how the two remaining 
surrendered themselves, but not till the men therein 
had been grievously wounded. But the activity of 
the Northmen was mainly displayed elsewhere. In 880 
they besieged Ghent ; in the following year one body of 



208 ALFRED, THE MAN OF WAR. 

them penetrated into France, and another landed on 
the east coast of Scotland. In 883 a Danish fleet 
sailed up the Scheldt. It was in this year that Alfred 
felt himself so far delivered from his troubles that he 
could pay the vows which he had made in the hour of 
danger. " Sighelm and Athelstan carried to Rome the 
alms which King Alfred had vowed ; and the King 
sent also to India to the shrines of St. Thomas and 
St. Bartholomew." 

In 885 there were troubles in Kent and East 
Anglia. Rochester was besieged by the Pagans, but 
held out till it was relieved by the King. This done, 
he sent his fleet into East Anglia. Coming to the 
mouth of the Stour (the river which divides Essex 
and Suffolk) "there met it sixteen ships of the Pagans. 
With them the English fought, arid took all the ships, 
and slew the men. But while they were returning 
home with much booty they fell in with a great 
armament of the Pagans. With this they fought that 
same day, but the Danes won the victory." In the 
following year the king " rebuilt London, and the 
whole nation of the English turned to him save such 
as were under the power of the Danes." This pro- 
bably indicates what may be called the high-water 
mark of Alfred's power. For seven years the land 
had peace. All that the Chronicler has to say about 
the Danes is to tell us of their doings abroad. Even 
the death of Guthrum in 890 did not cause any 
trouble. 

In 893 the struggle began again. A Danish army 
crossed over from Boulogne to Lymme with two 
hundred and fifty ships. Another, with eighty ships, 



BATTLE OF FARNHAM. 200, 

under a famous leader of the name of Hasting, 1 sailed 
up the Thames, and fortified a position at Milton (on 
the Medway) and Appledore (about six miles south- 
east of Tenterden, in Kent). The East Anglians, 
though professing to be faithful to Alfred, really assisted 
the invaders. The King's tactics seem to have been 
most skilful. He pitched his camp in a place pro- 
tected by woods and amply supplied with water, and 
dividing the two Danish armies from each other. 
From this position he watched the movements of 
both. One half of his forces always guarded the 
camp ; the other kept the field. The Danes attempted 
to carry the plunder which they had collected north- 
ward across the Thames into the Dane-law. Alfred 
came up with them at Farnham, 2 and defeated them. 
They fled across the river without trying to reach a ford, 
and thence to an island in the marshes of the Colne. 
There Alfred besieged them, though to carry on a 
siege was difficult when there was no regular com- 
missariat, and the army was on short service. On the 
other hand, the Danes could not leave the place, their 
king having been so severely wounded that he could 

1 Hasting had been a fellow-leader with Guthrum in the war that 
had been concluded by the Peace of Wedmore. He had then retired 
to France. But his position there had become unsafe. Accor- 
dingly we find him again in England. Two great causes were putting 
an end to the tranquillity which our island had enjoyed for some time. 
The Northmen had to yield to the superior force brought against them 
upon the Continent, while at home the growing power of the kings 
caused the chiefs who were unwilling to submit to a master to migrate, 
in search of a free home elsewhere. 

2 So the Chronicler says. But the Farnham in Surrey seems too 
much to the south. Perhaps it was, however, Farnboiough, near 
Bromley, in Kent. The narrative shows that they were on the south 
side of the Thames. 



210 



ALFRED, THE MAN OF WAR. 



not be moved. Before long, Alfred was called else- 
where. The Northumbrian and East Anglian Danes 
had manned a fleet of a hundred ships, and sailing 
southward and westward, had besieged a fortress, the 
name of which is not given, on the Devonshire coast, 
and the inland town of Exeter. The King marched 
with the main body of his army to Exeter, while he 




c^ 



ANGLO-SAXON JEWELS. 



sent a strong force to London under the command of 
his son Edward ; Hasting had built a fort at Benfleet 
(north of Canvey Island in the estuary of the 
Thames). When the English army arrived he was 
absent on a plundering expedition. The Danes were 
defeated, and the fort taken, with a great amount of 
plunder, and many Danish women and children. 



THE DANES CHASED THROUGH ENGLAND. 211 

Among these were the wife and two sons of Hasting 
himself. The boys had been baptized, Alfred himself 
having stood sponsor for one and one of his nobles for 
the other. Alfred with characteristic generosity sent 
them back, and handsome presents with them, to the 
Danish king. Meanwhile he reached and relieved 
Exeter. In the same year a Danish army, reinforced 
by some of their countrymen from East Anglia and 
Northumbria, made its way up the valley of the 
Thames, and thence into that of the Upper Severn. 
It was besieged at Bultington in Montgomeryshire by 
the Thanes of Western England, the King himself 
being employed with his operations in Devonshire. 
After holding out for several weeks, during which 
they had been driven to eat their horses, the Danes 
broke out of their entrenchments, and attempted to 
cut their way through the English army. They 
suffered a heavy loss in killed and prisoners, but some 
escaped to their old quarters in East Anglia. But 
they did not rest in them. Probably the country was 
too exhausted to yield them support. Their next 
movement was to Werral in Cheshire. They marched 
on that place with all speed, outstripping the pur- 
suit of Alfred's forces, and finding the fort empty, 
occupied it. The English laid waste all the country 
in the neighbourhood, and cut off such stragglers 
as showed themselves outside the walls. The Danes 
abandoned the place, and made their way into North 
Wales, and from thence back again into Northumbria 
and East Anglia. About the same time those who 
had been fighting in Devonshire also retreated east- 
ward, but were not permitted to escape without loss. 



212 ALFRED, THE MAN OF WAR. 

In 896 the struggle ceased for a time. The year 
indeed began with a disaster. The Danes had built 
a fort on the river Lee, about twenty miles from 
London. In the course of the summer the Londoners 
attempted to storm this place, but were repulsed with 
heavy loss, four Thanes falling in the assault. Some- 
what later Alfred himself took the command. His 
keen eye discovered a spot where the river might be 
so blocked that the retreat of the Danish ships would 
be cut off. He set about the work at once. The 
Danes perceived their danger, and abandoning their 
fleet marched westward to Quatbridge (near Bridge- 
north in Shropshire). This was practically the end 
of the war. The next summer, such of the invaders 
as had homes in Northumbria and East Anglia, 
returned to them ; the rest took ship and sailed to 
France and up the Seine. " The Pagan army," says 
the Chronicler, " thanks be to God ! had not yet 
broken the race of Englishmen ; this verily was much 
more broken during these three years by the plague 
among cattle, and most of all by the plague among 
men ; for of the noblest of the King's Thanes there 
died many in the said years." And he goes on to give 
a list of bishops and nobles that had so passed away. 

One more story is told of Alfred's valorous deeds 
against the heathen, and then his wars are at an end. 
" There came men from East Anglia and Northum- 
bria ravaging the land of the West Saxons. And 
Alfred the King commanded that they should make 
long ships to contend with their vessels. Twice as 
long were they, and some had sixty oars, and some 
yet more. Swifter were they, and steadier, and more 



SEA FIGHT. 213 

lofty also. They were made neither after the fashion 
of the Frisian ships, nor after that of the Danes ; but 
as the King judged they would be most useful. In 
that same year there came six ships, and did no small 
damage to the men of Devonshire, and to the other 
coasts. So the King commanded that they should go 
forth with nine of the new ships and keep them from 
going forth of the harbour. Then the pirates went 
out with three ships against them, but three were left 
on the dry land, for from these the sailors had gone 
forth to plunder. The King's ships took two of the 
three that came forth, slaying all the men, and in the 
third they left but five alive. But when three of the 
King's ships had run on the ground, and their fellows 
could not come to them, the Danes that were left 
in the three ships aforesaid came and fought against 
them. Then many were slain, that is to say, of the 
Frisians and Englishmen sixty-two, and of the Danes 
one hundred and twenty. But because the tide came 
to the Danish ships before the English could launch 
theirs on the deep the Danes were able to escape. 
Nevertheless their ships were so sore wounded that 
they were cast ashore. And the men were taken to the 
King at Winchester, who commanded that they should 
be hanged." 

We need not suppose that Alfred was less generous 
to enemies than he had been in past days. But the 
Danes had become a settled power, who, in some 
sense, shared the island with him. These lawless 
rovers, plundering on their own account, could no 
longer be endured, and must be treated as enemies of 
the human race. 



214 



ALFRED, THE MAN OF WAR. 



For the next four years the Chronicler has nothing 
to record but the death of Edhelm, Alderman of 
Wiltshire, and Heahstan, Bishop of London. Then 
under 901 we read : " in this year died Alfred, son of 
Ethehvulf, six nights before the feast of All Saints [i.e., 
on October 26th]. He was king over the whole English 
nation, save that part which was under the Danes. 
He had ruled for thirty years less by half a year, and 
Edward his son reigned in his stead." He does not 
add a single word of praise. The record of what he 
had done for England was praise enough. 




XX. 

ALFRED, THE MAN OF PEACE. 

GREAT as Alfred was, he would have been more 
than man, if he had done all the things which have 
been attributed to him. As Lappenburg puts it, "To 
the hero to whom the nation owed so much it grate- 
fully ascribed all, and the name of Alfred became 
adorned with the glory of Cyrus, Theseus, Numa, 
and Charlemagne." He is said, for instance, to have 
founded the institution of trial by jury, whereas it was 
an immemorial custom of the Teutonic tribes that a 
man should be tried by his peers, i.e., by his equals. 
Some, again, have given him the credit of dividing 
England into shires, hundreds, and parishes. We 
may be certain that such a division could not be the 
work of one man, that it must grow up gradually, 
and take many generations to complete. His work 
as a maker of laws may be described in his own 
words. " I, Alfred the King, gathered together these 
laws, and had many of them written which our fore- 
fathers held, those that I approved. And many of 
them that I approved not, I cast aside by the counsel 
of my wise men. I durst not write down much of 
my own, but those which I met with in the days 




*! 



* 



ALFRED'S ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 217 

either of Ine, my kinsman, or of Offa, King of the 
Mercians, or of Ethelbert, who first of English race 
received baptism, such as seemed to me the best I 
have gathered herein, and the others I have thrown 
aside." He speaks, it will be seen, of nothing new. 
The new thing is that the laws of Wessex, of Mercia, 
and of Kent, are brought together to make a common 
law of England. 

In the administration of justice his hand was 
probably felt more directly. Here the need of a 
strong and righteous ruler was especially needed. 
Inter anna silent leges, " Laws are silenced before the 
sword," was a Roman saying, and in Alfred's days 
the sword was everywhere. The nobles were too 
powerful ; the judges feeble and ignorant. Alfred is 
said to have taken from the aldermen some of their 
powers, and to have handed them over to judges. 
To the doings of the judges themselves he looked 
most closely. He urged them to make themselves 
acquainted with their business. Causes that they 
decided ignorantly he himself reviewed. Where he 
found that they had acted corruptly he visited them 
with the severest punishment. 

In other branches of government his work was 
great and useful. " His budget," says Mr. Green, " is 
the first royal budget that we possess." He divided 
his revenue into two parts, devoting one to civil, the 
other to ecclesiastic purposes. The former was again 
divided into three parts : one went to his "men-of-war 
and noble thanes." In these we see a curious antici- 
pation of the great officers of State of modern times. 
They spent one month, we are told, in the King's 



2l8 ALFRED, THE MAN OF PEACE. 

Court, and gave two to their own private affairs. A 
second third was spent on the " workmen skilled in 
all kinds of building, whom he had gathered and 
brought together from all nations in numbers almost 
beyond counting." The last portion was assigned to 
strangers that came to him from foreign parts, and 
this whether they asked for his help or no. 

Of the ecclesiastical part of the revenue a fourfold 
division was made. One went to the poor ; another 
to the two monasteries which he had himself founded 
(at Athelney and Shaftesbury) ; a third to his school 
for young nobles ; the fourth to all the monasteries 
and churches, not only in England, but in the British 
kingdom, in Northumbria, and even Ireland and 
France. 

It will be thought, perhaps, that only a small part 
of the rcyal revenue went to what we call the 
military, naval, and civil services. But it will be re- 
membered that these were still mainly supported by 
local means. But here also Alfred seems to have 
made changes which tended to make these services 
stronger and more permanent. 

Of the navy we have heard already. This indeed 
seems to have been almost a creation of Alfred's. We 
hear nothing of a fleet before his time. But during 
his reign we hear again and again of ships being 
built of new and improved designs for their con- 
struction. There is nothing in which the great king 
stands out more clearly as the founder of England's 
power. 

The army was not, of course, called into existence 
by him in anything like the same way. There had 



EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND LEARNING, 2IO, 

always been an army in which every able-bodied man 
was bound to serve. This would have been a vast 
force with which no invader could possibly have 
coped, if it could ever have been brought, or, when 
brought, kept together. Here was the difficulty. 
Every man had his own occupations, which he was 
loath to leave, and to which he was very anxious to 
return. However willing he might be to serve, he 
often could not provide himself with the necessary 
arms. When an army had been brought together it 
was not easy to feed it. The invading Danes, on the 
other hand, were from the very necessity of the case, 
a standing army. They might be beaten by the 
levies which were hastily brought against them. But 
when these levies had dispersed to their own homes, 
they were still there. This is a summary of the 
difficulties which Alfred had to meet, and he and his 
successors did it in this way. Every five hides of 
land x sent a soldier to the king's army, furnishing 
him with arms, victuals, and pay. At the same time 
every free man was still bound to serve in case of need. 
The force thus raised was divided into two parts, 
which were called into the field by turn, the other 
remaining at home to defend their own townships. 2 

But Alfred's greatest services to his country were 
done in the field of education, letters, and learning. 
That he founded the University of Oxford is un- 
doubtedly a fiction, though indeed a few years ago 

1 A hide of land = 120 acres. This may be taken as an approxima- 
tion, but it is doubtful whether the hide always meant the same. 

2 I must express here my special obligations to Mr. J. R. Green's 
"Conquest of England." 



220 ALFRED, THE MAN OF PEACE. 

University College celebrated its thousandth anniver- 
sary on the strength of the story. But there was 
certainly a school attached to his palace in which 
young nobles were taught, and where " books in both 
languages, the Latin, that is to say, and the English, 
were continually read." The monasteries which he 
founded or supported had also schools attached to 
them, and were regarded by the King as promoters of 
education as well as of learning. Scholars were in- 
vited from other lands to help him. Thus Pleg- 
mund was called from Mercia, and was promoted to 
the Archbishopric of Canterbury. Grimbald was in- 
vited from St. Omer, and Asser, who was afterwards 
to write the life of his patron, as we have seen, from 
St. David's. To this list a more doubtful account 
adds the famous philosopher, John Scotus, or Erigena, 
who is said to have been invited from the Court of 
Charles the Bald. 

But Alfred did not content himself with giving 
money or land to schools and other places of learning, 
or with hospitably entertaining scholars from other 
lands. He set the example of a diligent love of 
letters. He found time amidst all the distractions of 
war and of government to be a student and a writer. 
When he was nearly forty he had at last the oppor- 
tunity of learning Latin. At his accession, indeed, as 
he tells us himself, very few south of the Humber, 
and not one south of the Thames, could translate 
from Latin into English. This was the deplorable 
state of things which he had to remedy, and he 
remedied it by his own personal exertions. He is 
not indeed the first of royal authors ; but his author- 



WORKS ATTRIBUTED TO ALFRED. 221 

ship has the extraordinary merit of coming out under 
the greatest difficulties. Occupied almost incessantly 
with the business of war or of peace, beset by fre- 
quent illness, and living in an age of ignorance, he 
yet made himself a man of learning and letters. 

His chief works, and though many others have 
been attributed to him, perhaps we may say, his only 
works, were translations. One of these was his 
version of the "Liber Pastoralis" of Gregory the Great. 
His preface to this modestly describes his motives 
and his method. " When I remembered how the 
knowledge of Latin had formerly decayed throughout 
England, and yet many could read English writing, 
I began among other manifold and various troubles 
of this kingdom to translate into English the book 
which is called in Latin, ' Pastoralis,' and in English, 
' Shepherd's Book,' sometimes word by word, and 
sometimes according to the sense, as I had learnt it 
from Plegmund, my archbishop, and Asser, my 
bishop, and Grimbald, my mass-priest, and John, my 
mass-priest." The " Liber Pastoralis " is a treatise 
on the duties of a Christian minister, and was in 
Alfred's time and for long afterwards regarded as a 
standard work. Another book which the King trans- 
lated was the " Historia " of Orosius, a Spanish priest 
of the fifth century, and a disciple of Augustine of 
Hippo. This is an attempt at Universal History, 
beginning with the Creation of the world, and carried 
down to A.D. 417. Then again he translated the 
" Ecclesiastical History " of the Venerable Bede, 
and the " Consolations of Philosophy," written by 
Boethius, 470-524 A.D. 



222 ALFRED, THE MAN OF PEACE. 

But he did not always content himself with trans- 
lating. He added, for instance, to his version of 
Orosius, a description of Germany and Northern 
Europe, which he drew from the travels of two 
subjects of his own, Wulstan and Ohthere. He inserts 
reflections of his own on politics or religion in other 
treatises. It has been thought that the Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle owes to him not only its form in the 
language of the people, but something of the spirit 
and fulness with which the events of his own time 
are narrated. 1 The English tongue had had, indeed, 
its poetry long before Alfred's time. No man ever 
loved that poetry better than did the great king. We 
have seen how he learnt it diligently in his boyhood, 
and we are told that he taught it to his children. But 
every nation that is lifted at all out of the merest 
savagery has poetry. Its literature begins when prose 
is written in its language. In this sense Alfred is the 
founder, in a sense in which no man in the world's 
history can be said to be, of a literature, and that the 
most widely read and richest literature that there is. 

It is very interesting to hear of the methods by 
which this scholar-king contrived to accomplish so 
vast an amount of work. " Of a quantity of wax," 
says Asser, " weighing seventy-two pennies, he caused 

1 "It is from the death of Ethelwulf that the Roll widens into a 
continuous narrative, a narrative full of life and originality, where 
vigour and freshness mark the gift of a new power to the English 
tongue. The appearance of such a work in their own mother speech 
could not fail to produce a deep impression on the people whose story 
it told. With it English history became the heritage of the English 
people. Baeda had left it accessible mere ly to noble or priest ; Alfred 
was the first to give it to the people at large" ("The Conquest of 
England," p. 167). 



224 ALFRED, THE MAN OF PEACE. 

six candles to be made of equal weight, and each of 
twelve inches in length. These, he found, were burnt 
out in exactly twenty-four hours. To prevent them 
from being extinguished or wasted by the air that 
came from the doors and crevices in the walls, he 
caused lanterns of wood and fine horn to be made, by 
which they were sufficiently protected." It is curious 
to see how the mechanical inventions of classical 
times had been forgotten, or at least disused. The 
water-clock would have been a simpler method of 
reckoning time ; but no mention is made of it. But 
our admiration of Alfred's genius is increased by 
this proof of the rudeness of the times in which he 
lived, and even by the little glimpse that we get of 
his royal dwelling, so indifferently built that candles 
might be extinguished by draughts that blew from its 
doors and even from cracks in its walls. 

There is another thing in Alfred which must not be 
forgotten — his goodness. To courage, steadfastness, 
prudence, knowledge of men and capacity of rule, and 
learning, he added a personal righteousness and purity 
that is not easily to be matched in the records of man- 
kind. " ^Elfred," says Mr. Freeman, " is the most 
perfect character in history." 1 

1 This is summing up of an eloquent panegyric, that is, however, not 
more eloquent than just. The reader will find it in "The Norman 
Conquest," vol. i. pp. 48-52. 



XXI. 

EDWARD THE ELDER, AND ATHELSTAN. 

Alfred was succeeded by his eldest son Edward 
(called the Elder to distinguish him from another 
Edward, who reigned some seventy years later). 
This prince, who had distinguished himself in the 
victory over Hasting, was chosen by the Assembly, 
but there was a party which upheld the claims of 
Ethelwold, son of the late king's elder brother 
Ethelred. 1 Ethelwold rose in rebellion, and seized 
the royal town of Wimborne. The King at once 



1 Ethelred's sons, being children at the time of their father's death, 
had been passed over in favour of their uncle Alfred. This was the 
custom of the time ; it was necessary that a king should be a grown 
man, who could lead his armies to battle. As this, the first and simplest 
idea of kingship, grew into something more complex, and the king was 
surrounded by ministers and officers of state who did for him some of his 
work, it was found better to keep closely to the hereditary principle. 
The pretensions of Ethelwold showed the inconveniences of the older 
plan. When the prince who had been pns=ed over on account of his 
youth had grown to manhood, he had a claim which it might be difficult 
either to allow or to reject. 



226 EDWARD THE ELDER, AND ATHELSTAN. 

marched against him, and pitched his camp at Bad- 
bury, 1 four miles and a half north-east of Wimborne. 
The pretender had declared that he would not leave 
Wimborne alive. Nevertheless, he made his escape, 
and, outstripping the forces sent in pursuit, reached 
Northumbria. The Danes were not slow to recognize 
the advantage of having with them a pretender to 
the English Crown, and made him their king. The 
alliance was dangerous to Edward, but it showed 
that Danes and English were no longer strangers 
to each other. In 903 the pretenders brought, from 
" parts beyond the sea," says the Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle, a great fleet of Danes. Shortly after- 
wards, in company with the Danes of East Anglia, 
he invaded Mercia, then under the government of 
Ethelred and, it should be added, his wife, Ealswith, 
daughter of Alfred. They reached Cricklade, and 
crossing the Thames, plundered the region which still 
goes by the name of Bradon (west of Swindon in 
Wiltshire) which the Anglo-Saxon Chronicler gives 
it. Edward, in revenge, marched into East Anglia 
and laid waste the whole region between St. Edmund's 
Dyke and the Greater Ouse. When a retreat was 
ordered the Kentish forces refused to move after 
repeated commands from the King. Ethelwulf and 
the Danes attacked them, and a fierce battle ensued. 
Two aldermen, a king's thane, and other men of note 
fell on the English side ; on the other hand, both 
Ethelwulf and the Danish king of East Anglia were 
slain. Edward had now no rival, and in 906 he was 

1 Remains of a camp are still to be seen on a hill which bears the 
name of " Badbury Rings." 



LONDON AND OXFORD. 227 

able to make peace with the two Danish kingdoms, 
a peace seems to have remained in force for nearly 
four years. 

In 910 the Danes began again to move. Edward 
sent an army into Northumbria, which, after suffering 
five weeks of ravage, was glad to ask for peace. The 
East Anglians, who had invaded Mercia, were defeated 
at Tettenhall in Staffordshire. The next year Edward 
collected a fleet of a hundred ships on the south- 
eastern coast We do not know the object he had 
in view, but it has been conjectured x that he wished 
to help Charles the Simple against Rollo, who in this 
year became possessed of the province of Normandy. 
The Northumbrians saw their opportunity, and, 
bursting into Mercia, plundered the valleys of the 
Avon and the Lower Severn. The English army 
overtook them, as they were retreating, iaden with 
plunder. In the battle that followed two Danish 
kings and a number of nobles were slain. For some 
years after this defeat the Danes gave but little 
trouble, and Edward had leisure to consolidate his 
kingdom. 

Ethelred, sub-king of Mercia, died in 912, and 
Edward was then able to incorporate into his 
kingdom London and Oxford. The widow of the 
Mercian prince survived him for eight years, and 
during that time heartily joined hands with her 
brother. 

Their first work was to provide fortresses which 
might at once serve to defend the kingdom and to 
furnish bases of attacks on the Dane-law. Edward 

1 Lappenberg, ii. 89. 



228 EDWARD THE ELDER, AND ATHELSTAN. 

built one at Hertford and another at Witham (eight 
miles north-east of Chelmsford in Essex) ; Ethelflcd 
built others at Bridgenorth, Tamvvorth, Stamford 
Warwick, and elsewhere. 

While Edward was engaged in strengthening his 
power in Eastern England, his sister was busy in the 
West. Owen, a Welsh sub-king, had invaded Mercia. 
Ethelfled drove him out, and, following him into 
Wales, took by storm the town of Brecknock. He 
escaped and fled to Derby, which was held by the 
Danes. Derby was stormed, not without much loss 
to the English army, and Owen killed himself. 

The English power continued to advance. The 
Danish fortress of Tempsford (in Bedfordshire), 
Northampton, Colchester, fell into the hands of 
Edward, to whom the people of East Anglia and 
Essex, after a subjection of many years to the Pagans, 
gladly gave in their allegiance. The Danes at the 
same time acknowledged him as their overlord. 
Ethelfled, on her part, gained possession of Leicester 
by the surrender of the Danish garrison. The ex- 
ample of surrender was followed by the Danes of 
York. This was the last success of her life. She 
died at Tamworth on the 12th of June, 920. 

Serious as was this loss to King Edward, it had the 
effect of greatly strengthening his position. The 
daughter whom Ethelfled had left did not succeed to 
her power, and Mercia became a part of the English 
kingdom. With the new power that this increase of 
dominion gave him, Edward proceeded in his work of 
bringing the Danes under his sway. It would be 
tedious to give the details of this work. What was 



EDWARD'S STATESMANSHIP. 220, 

done in Eastern England has been seen already. In 
the West and North it was equally successful. Under 
the year 824 the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle relates: 
" The King of the Scots chose him for lord and 
father, and also all the race of the Scots. Also 
Regnulf and the son of Eadulf and all as many as 
dwelt in Northumbria, whether English, or Danes, or 
Northmen, and also the King of Strathclyde and all 
the people of Strathclyde." The following year the 
King died at Faringdon in Berkshire, and was buried 
at Winchester. 

There was no one to do for Edward what Bishop 
Asser did for Alfred — describe him to the generations 
to come. That he was an able ruler is sufficiently 
clear from the story of his achievements. He found 
his work indeed half, or more than half, done, but he 
finished it with consummate skill, without suffering, 
as far as we know, a single check. " He was equal to 
his father," says Florence of Worcester, " as a warrior 
and ruler ; and inferior only in learning." Higher 
praise there could not be. 

Edward left five sons and nine daughters. The 
eldest of the sons seems to have been of inferior 
birth ; various accounts are given of his mother 
Egwin. One writer speaks of her as "a noble lady," 
others as " a shepherd's daughter." Probably she 
was not of a rank sufficient to entitle her to the full 
dignity of a wife. However this may be, her son 
Athelstan became a favourite of his grandfather 
Alfred. As if to show that he considered him to be 
of princely rank, he gave him a purple cloak, a 
jewelled belt, and a Saxon sword in a scabbard of 



230 EDWARD THE ELDER, AND ATHELSTAN. 

gold. We hear little or nothing of the prince's 
doings during his father's life-time ; but he seems to 
have shown courage and ability, for Edward named 
him in his will as his successor. His second, Ethel- 
ward, may have been in such feeble health that it was 
necessary to pass him over. Anyhow, he died a few 
days after his father. The others were too young to 




INSTALLATION OF A SAXON KING. 



succeed. Athelstan, on the contrary, was in the full 
vigour of manhood z when he was crowned at Kingston 
by the Archbishop of Canterbury. 

Athelstan found, if not a biographer, at least a 
writer who would describe him with peculiar interest 
and affection. This was William, a monk of Malmes- 
bury, and one of the most learned and sensible of the 

1 He seems to have been thirty years of age. 



WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY. 23 1 

monkish chroniclers. William of Malmesbury was 
born about 1085, that is, a century and a half after 
Athelstan's death. But though he was not a con- 
temporary like Asser, he found in his monastery 
many traditions and, it would seem, at least one con- 
temporary record of the King. 1 From this he prob- 
ably gets the features of the portrait which he draws. 
" He was, as we have heard, of proper stature ; thin in 
person ; his hair flaxen, and beautifully wreathed with 
golden threads." He adds, after mentioning the colour 
of the king's hair, " as I have seen by his reliques." 
He was liberal, " prescribing to himself this rule of 
conduct, never to hoard up riches. . . To the clergy 
he was humble and affable ; to the laity, mild and 
pleasant ; to the nobility, somewhat reserved from 
respect to his dignity ; to the common people kindly 
condescending." 

Athelstan's first act was to give his sister (her 
name is not known) in marriage to Sihtric, King of 
the Northumbrian Danes. But the next year Sihtric 
was killed by his subjects, who may have resented his 
alliance with the English, or the baptism which was 
one of its conditions. Athelstan seemed to have had 
little difficulty in possessing himself of the vacant 
kingdom. Sihtric's two sons by a former marriage 

1 Athelstan was a liberal benefactor to Malmesbury Abbey. His 
gifts to the monks have gone the way of all such benefactions, but the 
town of Malmesbury still enjoys his liberality. The " commoners " 
have the free occupation of a considerable piece of land, given, the 
local tradition has it, in consideration of the aid which the townsmen 
rendered to the King in one of his battles with the Danes. It is difficult 
to see how, the Danes could have been found at any time in Athelstan's 
reign in the neighbourhood of Malmesbury. Possibly if the gift was for 
services in war it referred to a past time. 



232 EDWARD THE ELDER, AND ATHELSTAN. 

were expelled. One fled to Ireland, the other, after 
various wanderings, surrendered himself to the English 
king. He was hospitably entertained, but, after four 
days at Court, he "resought his ships, an incorrigible 
pirate, and accustomed to live in the water like a 
fish." The stronghold which the Danes had built at 
York was destroyed, but in other respects they were 
treated as equals. The nobles retained the power 
which they had had under their native ruler. But 
the King of the West Saxons was now also King of 
the Northern Dane-law. In the same year the Kings 
of Strathclyde and North Wales acknowledged 
Athelstan's supremacy. The West Welsh or Cornish- 
men seem to have resisted him. They were expelled 
from the part of the town at Exeter which they had 
hitherto occupied, and the Tamar, which still divides 
the counties of Devon and Cornwall, was made their 
eastern boundary. 

Athelstan was now, more really than any of his 
predecessors, an English king, and this, not by 
right of conquest only, but of government. " In the 
number and variety of the attendants of his Witana- 
gemots," says Mr. Green, " England saw somewhat of 
a foreshadowing of national life. Never before had 
Danish jarls and Welsh princes, the primate of the 
north and the primate of the south, nobles and theyns 
from Northumbria and East Anglia, as from Mercia 
and Wessex, met in a common gathering to give 
rede and counsel to a common king. As witan 
[counsellors] from every quarter of the land stood 
about his throne, men realized how the King of 
Wessex had risen into the King of England." 



THE STORY OF ANLAF. 233 

For some years Athelstan was left in peace, to 
strengthen his kingdom at home, and, as we shall 
see, to make alliances abroad. More than once the 
Northern Britons rose against him, but it was not till 
937 that he had to meet a really formidable attack. 
In that year Anlaf, son of Guthfrith of Northumbria, 
appeared off the coast of that province with a fleet of 
more than six hundred ships which carried a large 
force of the Irish Danes. Constantine, sub-king of 
Scotland, whose daughter he had married, Owen of 
Cumberland, and other British princes, with not a 
few men of English race, joined him. Athelstan at 
once marched to meet the invaders, and there fol- 
lowed one of the most famous battles of English 
history. 

William of Malmesbury, following, as has been said, 
some contemporary record now lost, tells us that on 
the eve of the battle Anlaf disguised himself as a 
minstrel, and so found admittance to the King's tent. 
He sang and played while the King and his nobles 
were occupied with their meal, and received a piece 
of money when he was dismissed. This he was too 
proud to keep, and buried in the earth. A soldier 
saw the act, and recognized the Danish king, under 
whom he had formerly served. The man told 
Athelstan what he had discovered, but not till the false 
minstrel was safe out of the camp. When Athelstan 
reproached him for this delay he answered, " The 
same oath that I have sworn to you I once swore to 
Anlaf ; had I betrayed him, you might well expect 
that I should betray you. But now. if you will con- 
descend to listen to my advice, change the place of 



234 EDWARD THE ELDER, AND ATHELSTAN. 

your tent." The King followed this counsel, and had 
reason to be glad that he did so. A night attack was 
made on the camp, and a bishop, who had come in 
with his attendants, and pitched his tent in the 
vacant place, was slain ; the King escaped himself 
unhurt. 

For a day or two longer Athelstan waited till the 
forces that he summoned from all parts of his king- 
dom came up. Then he gave battle to the enemy. 
The Chronicler tells us that this was the fiercest and 
bloodiest fight that had been fought since the English 
people first came to the island of Britain, and he 
incorporates in his story a poem, probably contem- 
porary, which commemorates the valour of the king 
and his nobles, and the complete defeat of the enemy. 
I quote from Professor H. Morley's version some part 
of this poem, the early date of which may be indi- 
cated by the fact that West Saxons and Mercians are 
so pointedly distinguished. 



" This year King Athelstan, the Lord of Earls, 
Ring-giver to the warriors, Edmund too, 
His brother, won in fight with edge of swords 
Life-long renown at Brunanburgh. The sons 
Of Edward clave with the forged steel the wall 
Of linden shields. The spirit of their sides 
Made them defenders of the land, its wealth, 
Its homes, in many a fight with many a foe. 
Low lay the Scottish foes, and death-doomed fell 
The shipmen ; the field streamed with warriors' blood, 
When rose at morning tide the glorious star, 
The sun, God's shining candle, until sank 
The noble creature to its setting. There 
Lay many a Northern warrior, struck with darts 
Shot from above the shield, and scattered wide 



BATTLE OF BRUNANBURGH. 235 

As fled the Scots, weary and sick of war, 
Forth followed the West Saxons, in war bands 
Tracking the hostile folk the livelong day. 
With falchions newly ground they hewed amain 
Behind the men who fled. The hard hand-play 
The Mercians refused to none who came. 
Warriors with Olave, o'er the beating waves, 
And borne in the ship's bosom, came death-doomed 
To battle in that land. There lay five kings 
Whom on the battlefield swords put to sleep, 
And they were young ; and seven of Olave's jails, 
With Scots and mariners an untold host. 
Then the Prince of the Northmen fled, compelled 
To seek with a small band his vessel's prow. 
The bark drove from the shore, the king set sail, 
And on the fallow flood preserved his life. 
Then fled the hoary chief, old Constantine ; 
Regaining his north country, not to boast 
How falchions met. 



Then in their mailed ships on the stormy seas 
The Northmen went, the leavings of red darts, 
Through the deep water Dublin once again, 
Ireland, to seek, abased. Fame-bearing went 
Meanwhile to their own land, West Saxon's land, 
The brothers, King and Atheling. They left 
The carcases behind them to be shared 
By livid kite, swart raven, horny-beaked, 
And the white eagle, of the goodly plumes, 
The greedy war-hawk, and grey forest wolf, 
Who ate the carrion." 



The English army suffered severely. Among the 
slain were two of the king's cousins — Alfric and 
Athelwin. A Scandinavian poem, but of later date, 
claims a share in the victory for some Danish mer- 
cenaries, who were in Athelstan's pay, and who gave 
him special help by defeating the Scots or Irish. 
Brunanburgh, the site of the battle, cannot be iden- 



236 EDWARD THE ELDER, AND ATHELSTAN. 

tified. It was probably somewhere near the Yorkshire 
or Lincolnshire coast. 

Athelstan's family alliances with foreign princes 
were remarkable. One of his sisters was married to 
the son of the German king, Henry the Fowler. This 
son was afterwards the Emperor Otto the Great. 
Another, who accompanied the bride to her German 
home, became the wife of some unknown prince, who 
possessed a " territory near the Alps." A third sister 
was married to Hugh, the father of the famous Hugh 
Capet ; and a fourth to a prince who has been called — 
but, it would seem, with doubtful accuracy — Louis of 
Aquitaine. The most important of these marriages 
was that between Hugh and Edhild. William of 
Malmesbury gives an account of the splendid embassy 
which accompanied Adulf of Flanders, himself a 
grandson of Alfred, when he came to demand for his. 
master's son, the hand of the English princess. He 
brought "gifts such as would satisfy the most bound- 
less avarice, perfumes such as had never before been 
known in England ; " and, among other marvels, the 
" sword of Constantine the Great," on which the name 
of its first possessor might still be read in letters of 
gold ; and the spear of Charlemagne, which had 
brought unfailing victory to the great emperor, when- 
ever he had hurled it against the infidels. It is 
beyond the scope of this book to disentangle the 
web of Athelstan's French politics. It must suffice 
to say that they were directed against the Normans, 
the kinsmen and allies of the English king's worst 
enemies at home. He sought to strengthen against 
them first Hugh, then Louis, surnamed d'Outremer, 



athelstan's reforms. 237 

his own nephew, whose youth had been spent in his 
Court. English kings before Athelstan had had rela- 
tions with foreign princes ; he is the first in whom we 
can trace a distinct foreign policy. 

In the promotion of peace and order at home the 
King was notably active. There were local courts of 
justice, parts of the old English life, throughout the 
kingdom, but they were overridden by the usurpa- 
tions and violence of powerful nobles. Athelstan set 
himself to correct this abuse by giving more power 
to the superior justice which proceeded from himself. 
" If any be so rich or of such great kindred that he 
cannot be kept back from robbery or the defence of 
robbers, let him be taken out of that part of the 
country, with wife and child, and all his goods, into 
that part of the kingdom that the King wills." Antici- 
pations of modern Poor Laws are to be found in the 
provision made for the support of one poor English- 
man on every two of the King's farms, and for the 
redemptions of those whom debt or offence had 
brought into a state of slavery. The " masterless " 
men, the " sturdy beggars " of a latter age, the 
" vagrants," who are so well known to ourselves, were 
not forgotten. Every man that had neither property 
nor lord to answer for him had to be placed under a 
lord. Strong regulations were made against theft, 
which was to be punished with a severity that long 
remained a blot on English laws. 1 

Markets and trade generally were put under strict 
regulation. Attention was also paid to the coinage 

1 As late as 1827 the stealing of goods to the value of a shilling from 
a dwelling-house was punishable with death or transportation. 



238 EDWARD THE ELDER, AND ATHELSTAN. 

of money, which thenceforward was only to be carried 
on at certain places Another institution of English 
life, to which Athelstan gave new force, is strange to 
modern society. 1 This was the " frith-gild," or peace- 
club, as it may be translated. The old custom of 
" frank pledge " had been one in which a man freely 
engaged with his neighbour to join with him in 
working for certain objects that concerned the public 
good. This grew up, under the encouragement of 
Athelstan and other kings, into the regular system of 
" peace-clubs." Every member of them swore to help 
his associates in all cases of need. They were leagues 
against violence and fraud, benefit clubs, and burial 
clubs. 2 

Athelstan survived his great victory at Brunan- 
burgh three years. He died on October 20, 940, and 
was buried at Malmesbury. His tomb is still to be 
seen 3 in the splendid Abbey Church, which is all 
that remains of the great monastery. He was but 
forty-six years of age. Again and again we find 
England suffering grievous loss from the early death 
of some of her ablest kings. 

1 I ought, perhaps, to except " Vigilance Committees," bodies which 
have been long familiar in some parts of the United States, and which 
are beginning to be known in England. 

2 On the Continent, where the Roman law, always adverse to volun- 
tary associations, had a firmer hold, these " peace-clubs " were put 
down with much severity. 

3 The tomb itself is comparatively modern. 



XXII. 

EDMUND I. AND EDRED. 

EDMUND, half-brother of Athelstan, and youngest 
son of Edward the Elder, was but eighteen years of age 
when he came to the throne. Nevertheless, three years 
before he had fought by his brother's side at Brunan- 
burgh. In those days, and indeed for long afterwards, 
Englishmen of royal and noble race ripened early- 
It was at fifteen, when a boy is now thought but just 
old enough for a great school, that Edward the Black 
Prince won the battle of Crec^y. 

It was no easy work that the young Edmund had 
to do. Athelstan had set over Northumbria a Nor- 
wegian prince, Eric of the Bloody Axe. " Eric," 
says Mr. Green, " is one of the few figures who stand 
out distinct for us from the historic darkness which 
covers the north." x " Stout and comely, strong and 
very manly, a great and lucky man of war, but evil- 
minded, gruff, unfriendly, and silent." 2 " He was in 
name a Christian, but he followed the ways of his 
heathen countrymen." As he had little land, "he 
went on a cruise every summer, and plundered in 

1 "Conquest of England," p. 263. 

2 Saga quoted by Mr. Green, I.e. 



240 EDMUND I. AND EDRED. 

Shetland and the Hebrides." When Athelstan was dead 
Eric felt himself unsafe. He took to his ships, and 
set off on another cruise for plunder. The Danes of 
Northumbria sent for Anlaf, and when he came in 
941 broke out into open revolt. They were joined 
by their kindred in Mercia, and in the following year 
found a powerful supporter in Wulfstan, Archbishop 
of York. Anlaf and Wulfstan, for the archbishop 
seems to have taken the field in person, led the 
Danish army into the dominions of Edmund. At 
first the English were worsted, suffering in particular 
a severe defeat at Tamworth. Then they recovered 
themselves. Mercia and the Five Boroughs x fell into 
their hands ; with Leicester Anlaf and Wulfstan were 
almost taken prisoners. Then a treaty was concluded, 
the negotiators being the two archbishops, Wulfstan 
and Odo, both of them, strangely enough, of Danish, 
or half Danish, extraction. By this Edmund gave 
up to Anlaf all the country north of Watling Street. 
The Danish king was to acknowledge Edmund as 
his overlord ; but this was a matter of form, and, 
for the time, at least, England was reduced to the 
dimensions which it had sixty years before. 

But the time was short. Anlaf died very soon 
after the conclusion of the treaty, and his dominions 
were divided between another Anlaf (son of Sihtric 2 ) 
and Regnault (son of Guthfrith). They enjoyed their 
power, however, but for a short time. In 944 Edmund 
drove them both out, and the Dane-law again became 
part of England. 

1 By this name were known the five towns of Derby, Lincoln, Not- 
tingham, Stamford, and Leicester, which had formed a confederacy in 
the early days of Alfred's reign. 2 See p. 231. 



"HE HARRIED ALL CUMBRIA.''' 241 

In the same year the English king still further 
strengthened his position. The Britons of Strath- 
clyde or Cumbria had been among the foes of 
Athelstan at Brunanburgh, and they had taken the 
occasion of Edmund's weakness to plunder the 
country to the south. It was against them, how- 
ever, that he turned his arms as soon as the Danes 
were disposed of. " He harried all Cumbria," and 
handed it over, when it was conquered, to Malcolm I. 
of Scotland, son of that Constantine who had barely 
escaped with his life from the defeat of Brunanburgh. 
It was a wise act, for Cumbria gave no trouble to the 
kings of England for many years thereafter. 

After a reign of scarcely six years, this young 
prince, who had shown such signal proofs of ability 
as a soldier and a statesman, came to a violent end — 
another instance of the unhappy fate which cut off 
so many of the best English kings in the very midst 
of their work. He was keeping the feast of St. 
Augustine of Canterbury (May 26th) at Puckle- 
church, in Gloucestershire, when an outlawed robber, 
Leofa by name, insolently entered the hall, and took 
his seat at the King's table. The cupbearer attempted 
to put him out, and Leofa drew his sword on him. 
The King rushed to the help of his servant, seized 
Leofa by the hair, and threw him to the ground ; but 
the robber, as he fell, drew a dagger from his belt, 
and stabbed Edmund to the heart. 

Edmund's sons were but children, and he was 
succeeded by his brother Edred, another able ruler, 
but short-lived like the rest of his house. The great 
event of his reign was what may be called the final 



242 



EDMUND I. AND EDRED. 



conquest of Northumbria. The Danes of that region 
made in Edred's second year another effort for 
independence. They drove out the two princes whom 
Edmund had established, and put in their place Eric, 
not their old sub-king, surnamed of the Bloody Axe, 
but a son of the Danish king, Harold Blue-tooth 
(Blaatand). In 947 Edred marched against the 
revolted province, and ravaged it from end to end. It 
marks a change in the conditions of the long struggle 




ANGLO-SAXON CUP. 

(Fotmd at Halton, Lancashire.) 

between English and Danes, that it is no longer 
the Christian people doing battle with Pagans. One 
of the chief acts of vengeance, with which Edred 
punishes the Northumbrians, is to burn to the ground 
the great Minster of Ripon, while Archbishop 
Wulfstan is found again among the chiefs and 
counsellors of the Danish army. The English king 



EDRED EMPEROR OF ALL BRITAIN. 243 

seems to have taken the Northumbrians by surprise, 
for we do not find that they made any attempt to 
resist his invasion. But they followed his retreat, and 
were strong enough to inflict a heavy loss upon his 
army when they overtook its rear at Chesterford (in 
Essex). The king was preparing to turn back 'and 
avenge this disaster by a fresh ravage of Northumbria, 
when he was appeased by entreaties for peace, and 
by large gifts which were to compensate for the lives 
of the slain. 

Three years afterwards Archbishop Wulfstan was 
arrested, and imprisoned at Jedburgh. Of what 
followed in Northumbria we know nothing for certain. 
Snorro Sturleson, the Icelandic chronicler, tells us of 
a fierce battle between Eric, son of Harold Blue-tooth, 
and Olaf, who represented the friends of the English 
rule. The result was the complete defeat of Eric, 
who fell with five other kings. If this is the true 
story the Northmen fought among themselves, and 
the English king had his work done for him. What 
is certain is that, in 954, Northumbria made its final 
submission, and was put under the rule of an English- 
man, Oswulf of Bernicia, being changed at the same 
time from a sub-kingdom into an earldom. 

In 955 we find Edred styling himself " King of the 
Anglo-Saxons and Emperor of all Britain." In the 
same year he died. He had long been in bad health. 
The biography of Dunstan x gives some piteous 
details of his illness, from which we may gather that 
he suffered from some painful ailment of the stomach. 

1 This is the first life printed in Dr. Stubbs's " Memorials of 
Dunstan." 



244 EDMUND I. AND ED RED. 

Curiously enough, the late chroniclers speaks of him 
as worn out with old age. Old he could not have 
been, for he certainly was not born before 924. He 
died at Frome, in Somersetshire, on the 23rd of 
November, before his friend and counsellor Dunstan 
could reach him. Dunstan .was hurrying from 
Glastonbury with the royal treasures, that the King 
might "freely dispose of them while he could." Of 
Dunstan it is now time to speak. 




XXIII. 



DUN STAN. 



DUNSTAN stands as certainly first among the 
Churchmen of Early England, as Alfred among its 
kings. Unhappily, we cannot get as clear an idea of 
his character. All or nearly all that we are told 
about Alfred belongs to history. If some tales x are 
mixed with it, these are few and of little importance. 
The story of Dunstan, on the other hand, is overlaid 
with legend and fiction. Even the almost con- 
temporary Life, written by " B," 2 a Saxon priest, and 
dedicated to Dunstan's successor in the archbishopric 
of Canterbury abounds with miracles. 

These, indeed, need not trouble us very much. It is 
a more serious matter that Dunstan's life has been 
made, so to speak, the battle-field of a very bitter 
controversy. Into the rights and wrongs of this con- 
troversy it is impossible to go, but it may be briefly 
described as the contest between the Regular and the 
Secular clergy. The Regular clergy were the monks, 
those who lived according to the rules {regulae) of the 

1 The story of the burnt cakes, for instance. 

2 The authorship of this Life is fully discussed by Dr. Stubbs, in his 
"Memorials of St. Dunstan." 



246 DUNSTAN. 

various monastic orders; the Seculars were those who 
were not bound by such rules, but lived in the world 
{secidum). They were, for the most part, the clergy 
who served the various parish churches throughout 
England, though they sometimes held preferments in 
cathedrals. It was as to the possession of the 
cathedrals indeed that some of the fiercest disputes 
occurred. Some bishop, who was strongly attached 
to the monastic system, would try to turn out the 
Secular priests, and bring in Regulars into their places. 
As to the parish priests, there was a great dispute 
whether or no they should be allowed to marry. 
Both these matters would cause, it is clear, much 
angry feeling, and angry feeling tends more than 
anything else to obscure the truth of history. Dunstan 
was believed to have been a very vehement champion 
of the Regulars against the Seculars. Some writers 
thought that he was right, some thought that he was 
wrong, according as they favoured this side or 
that; but they all agreed in exaggerating his actions ; 
the one to show his zeal and energy, the other to 
prove that he was cruel and tyrannical. It is not 
difficult, perhaps, for us to be impartial in the 
matter, but it is very difficult, at so great a distance 
of time, to discover the truth, hidden as it by the 
prejudices and interests of writers of the time, or, in 
any case, much nearer to it than we are. 

Dunstan was born in 920, near Glastonbury. He 
was of noble family. Two of his relatives were 
bishops ; others were attached to the royal household. 
His brother was " reeve," or steward, of the estates of 
Glastonbury Abbey. Dunstan was sent to the school 




DUNSTAN. 

{From the original MS. ). 



248 DUNSTAN. 

attached to the abbey, and made remarkable progress 
in his studies. It is interesting to hear that his chief 
teachers were Irishmen, and that he studied with 
special attention mathematics and arithmetic, and 
that he became a proficient in music. The harp and 
the organ are mentioned as the instruments on which 
he played. When he had reached the proper age he 
was ordained ; T and not long afterwards he became 
a monk. This latter step he took somewhat un- 
willingly, and not until he had been warned, as he 
thought, by an illness. This took place at Winchester. 
Thence he returned to Glastonbury, and built himself 
a cell, relieving his studies and meditations with 
work of the hands, especially with the labours of the 
forge. 2 At some time during the reign of Edmund, 
the successor of Athelstan, he was made Abbot of 
Glastonbury, and added largely to the buildings, 
while he reformed the discipline of the monastery. 
When Edred succeeded Edmund on the throne, 
Dunstan, who had been a fellow-student of the young 
king, at once took a great part in affairs of State. He 

1 By this is meant that he took the inferior orders ; a pfiest he did 
not become till after he had become a monk. 

2 Here comes in the famous story of the devil and the hot iron. 
William of Malmesbury's account may be thus abridged : — One day, 
towards evening, the devil looked in his window, as he was busy at 
his forge, and asked him to do a piece of work for him. Dunstan, who 
did not imagine who this pleasant-looking stranger really was, readily 
consented. But when his visitor began to indulge in loose talk, he 
began to suspect his character. He put his tongs in the furnace, blew 
it with his bellows into a white heat, and was just in time to catch the 
jaws of the tempter, who saw that he had been discovered. The Evil 
One fled, crying out with a voice loud enough to be heard over the 
whole country : " What has this bald head done ? " (A " bald head " 
because he had the monastic tonsure). 



CORONATION Of EDWY. 249 

was the chief adviser, or among the chief advisers, of 
Edred,and must share the credit of his successful policy 
abroad and at home. He did not, however, give up 
his position at Glastonbury, and he is said to have 
refused the offer of the bishopric of Crediton. In 
this position he remained till Edred's death in 955. 

Thenceforward for some time, Dunstan's story and 
the story of England may be told together. 

Edred was succeeded by his nephew Edwy, who, as 
his father Edmund was not born before 921, could not 
have been more than fifteen years of age. 1 He had 
no liking for Dunstan or his policy. The two soon 
came into violent collision. Edwy wished to marry 
a certain Elgiva, whose relationship to him was within 
the prohibited degrees. 2 This was itself a scandal, 
but the way in which the young king devoted himself 
to this lady and her mother was far more offensive. 
Early in 956 the coronation was held. Most of the 
great nobles and Churchmen were present at it, and 
Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, placed the crown on 
Edwy's head. At the feast which followed, the King 
made some pretext for withdrawing. As he did not 
return, and the cause of his long absence was sus- 

1 The very early age at which the English kings married is noticeable. 
They resembled in this respect the French Merovingians, though they 
did not degenerate in the same deplorable way. 

2 These degrees extended at the time as far as the seventh, i.e., as far 
as the relationship of sixth cousins. People might not marry if they had 
a common ancestor within eight generations, inclusively reckoned. Re- 
lationship by marriage was taken into account as well as relationship by 
blood. And spiritual relationship, i.e., the relation of god-father or 
god-mother, was also considered to be a bar, but not to the same extent. 
It was possible, however, to obtain dispensations by which such marriages 
were allowed. 



250 DUNSTAN. 

pected, Odo and the other nobles sent Dunstan and 
a kinsman to fetch him. They found him with Elgiva 
and her mother, the crown lying on the ground beside 
him, and compelled him to return to the banquet. 

It must not be supposed that the personal offence 
given by Dunstan's conduct was the only, or, indeed, 
the chief, cause of what followed. Some great ques- 
tion of government was at stake. Doubtless this con- 
cerned the relation of the smaller states to the leading 
kingdom, Wessex. It has been stated thus — that 
Dunstan " aimed at the unity of England under the 
West Saxon king, but giving home rule to each 
state " ; that " this policy was disliked by the West 
Saxon nobility, who regarded the vassal kingdoms as 
their own prey, and desired to make each state a de- 
pendency of Wessex." x Whatever the cause, Dunstan 
fell. The opposite faction, which was headed by some 
of the King's near kinsmen and by the mother of 
Elgiva, triumphed. Edgiva, widow of Edward the 
Elder, and mother of Edred, was stripped of her pro- 
perty, and Dunstan withdrew to Flanders, not without 
running some danger of his life on the way. At the 
close of this same year Athelstan, Alderman of East 
Anglia, who had shared the counsels of Dunstan and 
Edgiva, retired into a monastery. 

In 957 Edwy married Elgiva. The marriage was 
at least one of the causes which led to quarrel between 
the King's new counsellors. Some of them retired 

1 "Dictionary of English History": article, "Dunstan." Just at 
this point the able guidance of Mr. Green fails us. We are warned that 
the chapter on " The Great Ealdormen," does not represent his matured 
conclusions. 



EDGAR AND HIS PEACEFUL REIGN. 25 1 

from the Court, and set up Edgar, the King's younger 
brother, as King of Mercia and Northumbrian Edgar 
recalled Dunstan, and towards the end of the same 
year Archbishop Odo, after pronouncing the marriage 
of Edwy and Elgiva to be void, came over to the new 
king. 

Of Edwy nothing remains to be said, except that 
he died in the following year. The Saxon Chronicler, 
our most trustworthy authority, simply says : " In this 
year, the 1st of October, died King Edwy." Later 
writers speak of his having been murdered, or, at least, 
punished by some violent and unhappy death. 2 The 
biographer of Dunstan, mentioned above, has the 
phrase, " breathed his last breath in an unhappy 
death.'' We need not put much weight on these 
words, for the writer would hardly have supposed 
that a persecutor of Dunstan could have a happy 
end. 

Edwy was succeeded on the throne by his younger 
brother and rival, Edgar, who "became King," says 
the Chronicler, "in Wessex, and in Mercia also, and 
in Northumbria. In his days all things went exceed- 
ing well, and God granted to him that he should have 
peace so long as he lived. . . . And he loved the law 
of God, and took thought for the peace of his people 
beyond all the kings that had been before him within 

1 He seems to have been already sub-king of the first of these two 
provinces. 

2 The fate of Elgiva is not known. The stories o r how Odo dragged 
her from the arms of her husband, caused to be branded on the face with 
a hot iron, and banished her to Ireland ; how she returned, with her 
beauty restored, to fall again into the hands of her enemies, and to be 
cruelly tortured by them, do not rest on good authority. 



252 DUNSTAN. 

the memory of man. And God was with him, so that 
the kings and nobles diligently obeyed him, and did 
according to his pleasure ; and he ruled all things 
without force of arms as it seemed good to him." 
This description of Edgar's reign agrees with the title 
that has been given him of " Edgar the Peaceable," 
and, perhaps we may add, with the fact, that the 
Chronicles have little to say about this time. Eng- 
land was enjoying something of the happiness of a 
nation that has no history. 

Of Danish invasions we hear nothing during the 
sixteen years of Edgar's reign (959-975). Indeed, the 
King himself attacked them, making, we are told, an 
expedition against the Danes of Ireland, and taking 
from them, at least for a time, the town of Dublin. 
The Chronicler accuses him of showing too much 
favour to this people : " One exceeding great evil did 
he, that he loved the misdoings of foreigners, and 
established pagan customs in the land, inviting 
strangers hither, and bringing to his kingdom harm- 
ful peoples." We do not know enough of the history 
of the time to be able to understand at all exactly the 
meaning of this accusation. Perhaps it may be con- 
nected with Edgar's personal character, 1 and with 

1 We need not credit, much less relate, all the stories that later writers 
told to the King's advantage. Some were, doubtless, fictions ; others 
exaggerated. But there must have been some foundation for them. 
One may be briefly related, the tale of Elfreda, daughter of the Alder- 
man of Devonshire. The report of this lady's beauty had reached the 
King, and he sent a friend, Athelwold, son of Athelstan of East Anglia, 
to see whether it was equalled by the reality. The messenger himself 
fell wildly in love with the beauty, courted and won her for himself, 
representing to the King that her charms had been greatly exaggerated. 
But, as time went on, some report of the truth reached Edgar's ears, and 



THE ENGLISH FLEET. 253 

favourites of Danish race whom he placed in his 
Court. That he was a prince of violent temper and, 
for some time at least, of lawless habits, seems beyond 
doubt, and he may have offended the public opinion of 
his time by the choice of pagan companions. 

The foreign politics of Edgar's reign were chiefly 
concerned with the Welsh kingdoms. Idwal of North 
Wales refused the tribute which had been imposed 
upon his people by Athelstan, and regularly paid from 
that time. Edgar invaded and ravaged his territory. 
Idwal fell in battle, and the Welsh submitted. The 
tribute, it is said, was thenceforward commuted for 
an annual payment of three hundred wolves' heads. 
The effect was all that could be wished, for in the 
fourth year the number of heads could no longer be 
collected. Anotner expedition into Cumberland is 
also mentioned. 

The chief of the means by which Edgar protected 
his kingdom from invasion and reduced insubordinate 
tributaries to obedience was his fleet. The number 
of ships which he is said to have equipped * is beyond 
all belief ; but we may be sure that it was a strong 
and well-ordered force. Every year, after Easter, the 
King held what we should call a naval review. He 
made a circuit of the coasts of England, and inspected 

he announced to Athelwold his intention to pay him a visit. The un- 
happy man was thus compelled to tell his wife what he had clone, and 
to beg her to disguise her beauty as much as she could. Elgiva, angry 
that she had missed the chance of being a Queen, did exactly the oppo- 
site, using every means to heighten her charms. The King paid his 
visit, saw the deceit that had been practised upon him, and avenged it 
by murdering his friend with his own hand. Afterwards he married the 
widow, who bore him Ethelred. His disastrous reign will be the subject 
of the next chapter. x Three thousand six hundred ! 





EDGAR. 

{From the original MS. ). 



INCREASE OF DOMESTIC TRADE, 255 

the various squadrons which guarded them. It was 
after one of these expeditions that he received from 
the Celtic princes of the West a remarkable token of 
their homage. The sub-kings of Scotland, Cumbria, 
Mar, and the Hebrides, Strathclyde, Wales, and 
Westmoreland met him at Chester, and rowed him in 
a barge, which Edgar himself steered, to the monas- 
tery of St. John the Baptist. There they joined in 
worship, and thence they returned in the same fashion 
to the palace of Chester. 

Edgar did much during his reign for the internal 
order of his kingdom. He looked himself into the 
administration of justice by the aldermen,and punished 
their delinquencies x severely. Assizes, as we may 
call them, were to be held for ever) 7 borough three 
times, and for every shire twice in the year. The 
coinage was carefully looked to, and the money, 
which had suffered much in previous reigns from 
clipping, kept up to a proper standard. Attention 
also was given to weights and measures. There are 
proofs that domestic trade, and probably foreign 
commerce, greatly increased during the " golden 
days " of Edgar the Peaceable. 

Much of whatever credit is due for this prosperity 
belongs, it cannot be doubted, to Dunstan, who con- 
tinued to be the King's Prime Minister throughout 
his reign. He became Bishop of Worcester and 
London successively, and, shortly after the death of 
Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury. Elfsin of Win- 

1 He is said to have ravaged the Isle of Thanet because the inhabi- 
tants of that district had plundered and imprisoned some traders from 
York. 



256 



DUNSTAN. 



Chester was indeed appointed to succeed him (Odo 
died before the accession of Edgar), but Elfsin died 
of cold, or, as another account has it, was killed by 
an avalanche, on his journey to Rome. 1 Another 
successor was selected, but he was manifestly unfit for 
so important a post, and hastened, or was compelled, 
to resign. Dunstan was chosen, in the year following 
the accession of Edward, and held the see for twenty- 
eight years. It seems to have been vacant for two. 

In 975 King Edgar died. He was in the thirty- 
second or thirty-third year of his age. 

1 Archbishops had to receive from the Pope a pall {pallium), which 
was the token o their authority over their suffragan bishops. They 
commonly went to Rome to be invested with this by the Pope in 
person, but it was sometimes sent to them. The pall seems to have 
been first given by a Pope early in the sixth century. Its importance 
as a sign of the growing Papal authority is evident. 




XXIV 

EDWARD (THE MARTYR) AND ETHELRED THE 
UNREADY. 

EDGAR left two sons, Edward and Ethelred. The 
former was thirteen, the latter seven years of age. 
There was no older prince of the House of Alfred 
who could be called to the throne, and between two 
children the choice seemed, at least to some of the 
nobles, to be open. Elgiva, the mother of Ethelred, 
claimed the crown for her son, on what pretext it is 
not easy to understand, 1 and found some supporters. 
But Dunstan was too powerful for her. He pre- 
sented the young Edward to the assembly, and gave 
him the royal consecration on the spot, being joined 
in the act by his fellow-primate the Archbishop of 
York. 

The politics of Edward's short reign are extremely 
obscure. The Chroniclers of later times speak as if 
the chief question in dispute was whether the dignities 
of the Church should be held by monks or seculars. 

1 It is said on the ground that Edgar was not crowned when Edward 
was born. Rut neither was he crowned, as far as we know, till five 
years after the birth of Ethelred. The only coronation of Edgar that is 
recorded took place in 973. Possibly Edward's mother never received 
the title of Queen. 



258 EDWARD AND ETHELRED. 

But even if this view be accepted we are still in the 
dark. One of the undoubted facts of the period is 
that " Oslac the great Earl of Northumbria was 
banished," and another that " Elfhere commanded 
that many monasteries should be destroyed which 
King Edgar had before commanded the holy bishop 
Athelwold to restore." But Oslac's banishment is 
lamented by the monkish chroniclers. He was the 
friend of the Orders. And if Dunstan was in power, 
why was it that Oslac and not Elfhere was 
banished ? It has been suggested * that the real 
question in dispute was the relation between the 
King and the nobles, and that Dunstan, whose devo- 
tion to the monastic cause has been greatly exagge- 
rated, ranged himself on the side of the King. 

In 976 there was a great famine throughout 
England. Two years afterwards " all the nobles of 
England, assembled in council at Calne, fell from a 
certain chamber, save only the holy Archbishop 
Dunstan, who planted his feet upon a beam. Some 
were grievously wounded, and others did not even 
escape alive." 

In this year Edward was murdered. That the deed 
was done at Corfe Castle in Dorsetshire, and by the 
instigation of his step-mother Elfrida, may be taken 
as a certainty. Later writers add that be had been 
hunting in the neighbourhood, that left alone by his 
attendants and wearied by the chase, he made his 
way to his step-mother's palace, that she met him at 
the door and presented him with a cup of wine, and 
that while he was drinking an assassin plunged a 

1 " Conquest of England," p. 352. 




CORFE CASTLE. 

{The King's Tower — Saxon Work.) 



260 EDWARD AND ETHELRED. 

dagger into his body. When he felt the blow the 
young King set spurs to his horse, but, weakened by 
loss of blood, fell from his saddle, and was dragged 
along till he died. His body was buried without any 
ceremony at Wareham, but was translated in the 
following year by Elfhere and Dunstan to Shaftes- 
bury, and re-interred with royal honours. Pity for 
his untimely fate gave him the title of Martyr, and 
the festival of the translation of his bones retains its 
place in the Calendar of the English Church. 

Ethelred was crowned at Kingston in May, 979. 
He was then in his eleventh year. Little is told us 
of the early years of his reign, but enough to show us 
that the old troubles were coming back. The incur- 
sions of the pirates, from which England had been 
almost entirely free, for many years began again. 
They were rendered restless at home by the growing 
strength of the royal power, and by the conflict 
between Christianity and .their old faith, while they 
soon found out that England was less vigorously 
governed and protected than it had been for many 
generations. The great fleet which Edgar had raised 
for the defence of the coasts had disappeared. As early 
as the second year of Ethelred's reign we hear of 
places so widely apart as Kent, Southampton, and 
Chester being ravaged by the pirates. Then there 
were troubles and strife at home. London, always 
the richest, if not the most politically important, city 
of the kingdom was burnt to the ground. " A great 
murrain of cattle happened for the first time in the 
English nation." Elfric, ruler of Mercia, was banished, 
and the King, for some reason which is not known to 



DEATH OF DUNSTAN. 261 

us, laid siege to Rochester, and unable to take the 
town, ravaged the lands of the bishopric. And then 
in 988 x the great Dunstan died. He had been pre- 
sent at the coronation of Ethelred, probably had 
himself performed it. William of Malmesbury records 
the prophecy which he is said to have uttered on that 
occasion : " The sin of thy mother and of the men 
that conspired with her in her wicked deed shall not 
be washed out but with the blood of many ; and 
there shall come upon the English people such evils 
as it has not suffered from the day that it came 
hither until now ! " From that time the great Arch- 
bishop had little or no part in affairs of state, though 
he is said to have bought off the King from his attack 
on Rochester by the present of a hundred pounds, 
and to have expressed his contempt for his meanness 
in taking it. He occupied himself with the care of 
his diocese and his province, and what time these and 
his private devotions left him he gave to study. On 
Ascension Day, May 17th, he preached three times, 
and entertained his guests with his customary cheer- 
fulness. Two days afterwards he died, " a man," says 
his biographer, " not of very advanced years, but of 
boundless sanctity, whose virtues exceeded all reports 
of them, and who postponed till his own departure 
the ruin that had long since been threatening his 
country." 

This danger was indeed more formidable than the 
piratical descents which had troubled the early years 
of Ethelred's reign. It was nothing less than the 
conquest of the whole kingdom. The rest of Ethel- 

1 Dunstan's name is still kept in the Anglican Calendar. 



262 EDWARD AND ETHELRED. 

red's reign, nearly thirty years, was spent in vain 
attempts to keep off these terrible foes from the 
North. Bribery, battle, massacre were all tried in 
turn, and all failed. 

The great leader of the Danes in this struggle was 
Swegen, commonly known as Sweyn, son of Harald 
Blue-tooth. Sweyn, who had been baptized, but had 
thrown off his Christianity, represented the old 
heathen party. In this character he had waged war 
with his father, and this was one of the causes why, 
after a very brief occupation of the throne on Harald's 
death in 986, he was driven into exile. A Danish 
exile took, of course, to piracy, and the raids which 
had ceased for a time during Sweyn's struggle with 
his father and brief tenure of his kingdom, began 
again in a worse form than ever. In the very year 
of Dunstan's death, " Goda, Thane of Devonshire, 
was slain, and with him there was made a great 
slaughter." 

But it was three years afterwards that there hap- 
pened one of the most famous and disastrous battles 
that ever has been fought on English soil. Sweyn 
himself was not present ; the leaders of the North- 
men being Justin and Guthmund, lieutenants of Olaf 
Tryggvason, King of Norway, and possibly Olaf him- 
self. It is not certain where the invaders landed, 
but it must have been somewhere on the eastern or 
south-eastern coast. Anyhow we hear of Staines, 1 
Sandwich, and Ipswich, as being places which they 
harried. But it was at Maldon in Essex that they 
met the English forces, led by Brithnoth, Alderman 

1 If the " Stane " of the Ansrlo- Saxon Chronicle be Staines. 



BATTLE OF MALDON. 263 

of East Anglia. The Danish ships had sailed up the 
estuary of the Blackwater, and lay in a creek near the 
town. The invaders occupied the space between this 
creek and another which is a little further off from 
Maldon. On the further side of this latter stream 
were ranged the Englishmen under Brithnoth. The 
first struggle was for the bridge which spanned it. It 
was held, and held successfully, by three champions, 
whose names the poet who tells the story of the great 
fight gives as Wulfstan, Elfhere, and Maccus. But 
when the tide in the creek had ebbed the bridge 
ceased to be an important post. The water was 
shallow enough to be forded, and the English chief 
permitted, or, perhaps, could not prevent the crossing 
of a large body of the invaders. The English stood 
to receive them, in a close line, with their shields 
locked together. Each army sent a flight of javelins 
at each other, and then closed in deadly conflict with 
the broad sword. The Alderman, wounded early in 
the battle, fought on till he died, not failing to sell his 
life dearly. The struggle went on over his corpse ; 
till a panic fell on the English line, and the Danes 
were able to carry off the dead hero. But it was 
recovered from their hands, whether by their own 
action in doing honour to so brave a foe, or by a sally 
of the English, we cannot say. Anyhow it was buried 
in the great church of Ely with all the honours that 
the abbot and his monks could pay. 

The victory at Maldon rested with the Danes, but 
if there had been .many English leaders such as Brith- 
noth, it would have been like the victories over the 
Romans which cost Pyrrhus so dear. Unhappily such 



264 EDWARD AND ETHELRED. 

were not to be found, or they had not the ear of the 
king. Instead of readily resisting, Ethelred and his 
counsellors, among whom was Sigeric, an unworthy 
successor of Dunstan, preferred the cowardly and 
foolish policy of buying off the invaders. Olaf and 
his two lieutenants received a sum of ten thousand 
pounds. They promised in return to help the Eng- 
lish king against any other invaders, and to keep the 
peace themselves. 

The second condition they seem very soon to have 
broken. The next year we find the English king 
assembling a great fleet at London to attack the 
Northmen. And we find also for the first time 
treachery in the English councils. Elfric, Alderman 
of Wiltshire, who was joined in command of the 
English ships with another great noble and with two 
bishops, sent secret word to the Northmen that their 
fleet would be surrounded. On the eve of the attack 
he himself deserted to the enemy, and escaped with 
them. The English fleet could not capture more 
than a single ship ; but it afterwards met and van- 
quished the Danes at sea. On this occasion Elfgar, 
son of Elfric, was taken prisoner, and was blinded by 
order of Ethelred. The Danes sailed northwards, 
ravaged the coasts of Lincolnshire and Northumbria, 
and defeated the forces which were assembled to 
meet them. Here, again, treachery was at work. 
The three leaders of the English left the field. They 
had this excuse, which cannot be made for Elfric, that 
they were of Danish descent. 

In 994 a formidable force sailed up the Thames to 
London. It consisted of ninety-four ships, and was 



266 EDWARD AND ETHELRED. 

commanded by Sweyn of Denmark and Olaf of 
Norway. The Northmen attacked the city, and were 
beaten back by the citizens, who showed their valour 
not for the first or the last time in their history. 
The invaders "suffered," says the Chronicler, " more 
loss and damage than they had thought that any 
men could inflict upon them." They revenged them- 
selves by cruelly ravaging all the region of East 
Anglia, Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire. Ethelred did 
not attempt to imitate the valour of the Londoners, 
but went back to the miserable policy of Maldon, and 
bought off the enemy. This time, indeed, a more 
sagacious course was followed, and the enemy was 
divided against himself. The king's offers were made 
to Olaf of Norway ; he received sixteen thousand 
pounds, and, after taking hostages to secure his safe 
return, was conducted to Ethelred, at Andover. There 
he was received with great honour, and underwent 
the rite of confirmation at the hands of the Bishop 
of Winchester, the English king standing sponsor for 
him. He made a promise that he would never again 
visit England as an enemy, and this promise he kept. 
Indeed he never returned at all ; but served his new 
friends by waging war with the King of Denmark. 
It was in a sea-fight with him that he died six years 
afterwards (A.D. iooo). 



XXV. 



ETHELREI) AND SWEYN. • 



FOR two years after the treaty with Olaf England 
had rest from the Northmen. It is significant of the 
feeling of security that this breathing space seemed to 
give, that now at last the long wanderings of the 
relics of Cuthbert of Lindisfarne came to an end. 
Their first resting-place had been in the monastery of 
Lindisfarne. Thence they had been removed at the 
rumour of the Danish invasion of 875. After eight 
years of wandering, during which it was at one time 
intended to transport them to Ireland, they found in 
883 what seemed a permanent abode at Chester-le- 
Street, five miles north of the present city of Durham. 
At Chester-le-Street they remained for more than a 
hundred years. Again the terror of the Danes drove 
them forth. This time they wandered as far south 
as Ripon in Yorkshire. Thence again, when peace 
seemed assured, they set out for their old home at 
Chester But the bishop and his monks were at- 
tracted on their road by the charms of the site at 
Durham. At Durham they remained, and remain to 



268 ETHELRED AND SWEYN. 

this day. The hope of peace was disappointed, 
but that it was strong at the time is proved by the 
action of the guardians of the relics. It was still some 
years before the great Svveyn was to reappear. He 
was busy at home. But the incursions of the North- 
men began again in 997. In that and the two fol- 
lowing years they are reported as having ravaged the 
south and west coasts of England. Cornwall, Wales, 
Devonshire, Dorsetshire, the Isle of Wight, Sussex, 
and Kent, are mentioned among the places which 
suffered from them. It was the plunder of these last 
districts that seems to have stirred up the King and 
his counsellors to action ; but it was action that did 
more harm than good. After telling us that the 
Danes, when they had routed the men of Kent, took 
to themselves horses, and rode whithersoever they 
would, and laid waste the whole western part of 
Kent, the Chronicler goes on : " Then it was ordered 
by the King and his nobles that an army should be 
gathered together both by sea and land. But when 
the ships had been got ready, they delayed from day 
to day, and the unhappy people that manned the 
ships were sore distressed. And if ever the fleet was 
about to sail forth, it was always hindered from one 
time to another, and meanwhile the strength of 
the enemy increased. For only when the Pagans re- 
treated from the sea coast, then would the fleet go 
forth. So to the end the fleet served no good pur- 
pose, but did only trouble the people, and bring 
about the losing of much money, and encourage the 
enemy." 

Still the King's fleet and army were not wholly idle. 



RAVAGE OF CUMBERLAND AND MAN. 269 

Though they could not or did not hinder the ravages 
of the Danes, they were used against the Celtic king- 
dom of Cumberland, which for the last fifty years had 
been subordinate to Scotland. In 1000 A.D., Ethel- 
red " marched into Cumberland, and laid nearly all 
the whole land waste; and his fleet sailing from 
Chester sought to meet him, but could not for the 
winds. Therefore they laid waste the island of Man." * 
What Cumberland and Man had done to bring down 
upon them the anger of the English king is not clear. 
As to Man, according to one account, it had been 
harried by Sweyn on his last visit to these islands. 
But, if this be true, it only makes the matter more 
obscure. Cumberland is said to have refused the 
Danegelt, or contribution for preparations against the 
Danes, or, as was more commonly the case, buying 
them off. As its sub-king owed whatever tribute to 
be paid to an overlord in Scotland, he was right in 
refusing this claim. But it would be rash to say cer- 
tainly that it was ever made. The Saxon Chronicler 
simply relates the facts of the expedition. 

Still more obscure is a story told of an invasion of 
Normandy by Ethelred's army in the same year, very 
near the end of the century. Why it went there, and 
what it was expected to do, cannot be guessed, except 
we suppose that the English rulers thought it well to 
aim a blow at the Northmen through their kinsmen 
settled in France. The expedition ended in disaster, 
and even disgrace, though we need not believe the 



1 " Man " may possibly mean Anglesea. The name of Mono, was 
applied by the Romans to both islands. 



270 ETHEL RED AND SWEYN. 

story that the English warriors were struck down by 
the Norman women. As for the Danes, they came 
back in the following year in greater force than ever. 
The Chronicler tells how there were stirred up great 
troubles throughout the land by the fleet of the 
Pagans, who ravaged everywhere, and burned houses 
with fire ; how they fought at Alton with the men of 
Hampshire and defeated them, slaying many nobles, 
though not without great loss of their own ; how 
they marched from Alton westward into Devonshire, 
and were joined by a certain Pallig, to whom the 
King had given much land and gold and silver, but 
who nevertheless revolted against him. Then we hear 
of Teinton 1 and more houses than the Chronicler 
can tell of being burnt. Then comes a treaty, which 
seems of little avail, for the Pagans march into Somer- 
setshire, and there defeat an English army. Finally, 
they go eastward again to the Isle of Wight, and 
make another treaty, which, as the season for fight- 
ing was probably coming to an end, they consent 
to keep. 

In the next year (1002) comes a crisis in the con- 
flict. " In this year," says the Chronicler, " it was 
decreed by the King and the nobles that a tribute 
should be paid to the fleet [of the Danes], and that 
peace should be made with the Pagans on the con- 
dition that they should cease from their misdoings. 
Then the King sent Leofig, who, according to the 
words of the King and the nobles, made peace with 
them, on condition that they should receive money 

1 Possibly Teignmoutb. 




SAXON PENNIES. 



No. i. Egbert. No. 2. Ethelwulf. No. 3. Ethelbald. No. 4. ^Ethelbright. 

5 Ethelred. 6. Alfred. 7. Eadward I. 8. Ethclstan. 

Edmund. 10. Edred. n. Edwy. 12. Eadgar. 

No. 13. Eadward 11. No. 14. Eihelred the Unready. 



272 ETHELRED AND SWEYN. 

and food. To this they consented, and there were 
paid to them twenty-four thousand pounds." 1 

" In the Lent of this same year came the daughter 
of Duke Richard, Emma, into this land." Ethelred's 
first wife Elgiva was dead, and he found a second in 
the daughter of the Norman Duke Richard, Emma 
the "Jewel" "(Gemma) Normannorum." He is said 
to have gone to court her in person. She is reported 
to have been as beautiful as Helen of Troy, and her 
coming was as fatal, if not to the nation to which she 
came, yet certainly to the house into which she 
married. She was the first of the Norman invaders, 
and, by her influence, exercised in the first instance 
through her two husbands 2 and her son, she paved 
the way for the host which was to conquer England 
some sixty years later. 

Ethelred now ventured on one of those great 
crimes which, however successful they may seem 
for the time, surely bring down a fearful punish- 
ment on those who commit them. 3 He ordered 

1 The money raised, either to furnish resistance to the invaders or to 
purchase their forbearance, was called "Dane-money " (Danegelt). It 
seems to have been a tax of two shillings on every hide (or 120 acres) of 
cultivated ground. The name is commonly said to have been first 
given in 991 (see p. 264). The tax remained, as taxes often do, long 
after the first occasion for it had passed away. William the Conqueror 
revived it in 1083, and it was not finally abolished till the reign of 
Henry II. It appears to have been one of the matters in dispute 
between that King and Thomas a Becket. 

2 After Ethelred's death she married Canute. Her son was Edward 
the Confessor. 

3 We may compare the fate of Mithradates, who in 88 B.C. ordered 
the massacre of all the Roman citizens then residing in Asia, and the 
disastrous results of the Sicilian vespers (a.d. 1282), when all the 
French in Sicily were simultaneously murdered. 



st. brice's day. 273 

that all the Danes throughout England should be 
murdered, and his orders were carried out on St. 
Brice's day, November 13th. 

It is very likely that Ethelred ventured on this 
summary way of ridding himself of his enemies on 
the strength of his alliance with the ruler of Nor- 
mandy. It is certain that he must have had the 
feeling of his people with him, for otherwise his 
orders would not have been carried out so thoroughly 
as they seem to have been. The English must have 
been terribly irritated against the strangers. They 
were heathens ; they had burnt the churches and 
monasteries, and carried fire and sword and ravage 
everywhere. Probably they behaved with insolence, 
even when they were not acting as enemies. The 
Chroniclers of later times speak of the jealousy of 
the English against the foreigners, who pleased the 
native women by their smart dress and cleanly habits. 1 
One great provocation there certainly was in the 
heavy tax for which their presence had given occa- 
sion. Fifty thousand pounds had been paid to them 
in the course of eleven years, a bribe for a forbear- 
ance which after all they did not show ; and fifty 
thousand pounds, which would be a very large sum 
if put into money of our time, must have been an 
oppressive burden on a nation that may be said to 
have had very little trade or manufactures. 

It may be supposed that the King did not want a 
pretext for his act. He had had information, he 
declared, that the Danes had made a plot to slay 

1 It was especially alleged against the Danes that they indulged in the 
strange habit of bathing. 



274 



ETHELRED AND SWEYN. 



him and all his nobles, so that they might take pos- 
session of his kingdom without any man resisting. 
We have no means of judging whether there was any 
truth in the charge. The number of victims is not 
known. Later writers embellished their accounts of 
the massacre with the description of horrible cruelties 
practised on women and children — women, for the 
most part, whom the Danes had taken to wife, and 
children who had been born of these marriages. The 




DANISH WAR VESSEL. 

original authority simply says : " This year the King 
ordered that all the Danes who were in England 
should be slain." 

One woman, indeed, seems to have perished in 
the massacre, and this one brought about a speedy 
punishment of the crime. Gunhild, sister of King 
Sweyn of Denmark, had married the Pallig whose 
treachery to the King has been mentioned earlier in 
the chapter. She was now killed, declaring, it is 



GUN HILDAS PROPHECY. 



275 



said, with her last breath, that her death would bring 
many wars upon England. The prophecy was soon 
fulfilled, for in the very next year Sweyn himself 
came back, declaring that he would revenge his sister 
and his countrymen. 




XXVI. 

THE VENGEANCE FOR ST. BRICE'S DAY. 

SWEYN was now the most powerful prince of the 
kingdoms of the Northmen. Olaf Tryggvason, first 
his ally and then his enemy, had perished three years 
before in battle with him, and he seems to have 
formed plans of conquest such as had not seemed 
possible to any of those who had gone before him. 
They had been content, first with the plunder of 
England, and then with a goodly share of its land. 
He resolved to be its king. 

The murder of his sister gave him, as has been 
said, a good pretext for action. His first landing 
was near Exeter. And here we have the earliest 
of the disasters that were to come from the Norman 
connections of the new Queen of England. " In 
this year Exeter was taken by the neglect of the 
Norman Count Hugh, whom the Queen had made 
reeve of it ; and the Pagans utterly destroyed it, and 
carried away much booty." If Queen Emma was to 
blame for putting this unworthy favourite in a post 
that he was unfit to fill, it must have been the King 
that put the traitor Elfric * in command of the English 

1 See p. 264. 



NORWICH AND THETFORD BURNT. 2JJ 

army. " There was gathered together an exceeding 
great army out of Wiltshire and Hampshire, and it 
marched against the Pagans with great singleness of 
heart. But Elfric, who should have led it, showed 
his ancient craft. For when the armies were now 
near together, so that they could see each other, 
Elfric made a pretence that he was sick, vomiting 
and saying that he suffered from some disease. Thus 
did he betray the people whom he should have led." 
The result was that no battle was fought, and that 
Sweyn was left to ravage Wiltshire as he pleased. 

The next year we find him on the other side of 
England, burning Norwich. But this time he was 
not to escape so easily. Ulfkytel, the East Anglian 
Alderman, finding himself unprepared, perhaps over- 
borne by the nobles with whom he took counsel, 
resolved to follow the fatal example which had 
already been set so often, " to give the money to 
the army of the Pagans, and so make peace with 
them, before the land suffered worse damage. The 
Danes took the bribe, and, as usual, broke their 
promise." They marched southwards to Thetford, 
stopped in the town one night, plundered and 
burnt it. " But as they were returning to their 
ships, Ulfkytel came upon them with his forces. 
Then did they fight a fierce battle, and a great 
slaughter was made on both sides. Many nobles 
of the East Angles were slain. But if the whole 
army of the English had been there, the Pagans 
had never returned to their ships ; and so they 
themselves declared." As it was, Sweyn remained 
for the winter in England. 



278 THE VENGEANCE FOR ST. B RICE'S DAY. 






The next year (1005) was a year of peace. At 
least we hear of no Danish ravages. Sweyn's fleet 
went back to Denmark, driven away, it is possible, 
by the famine, so terrible that none remembered the 
like, that there was throughout England. Shortly 
after the midsummer of 1006 it returned, making for 
the port of Sandwich. " And the Pagans did as they 
were wont, for they plundered, and burnt, and slew all 
that came in their way." These ravages stirred up 
King Ethelred to levy an army against them ; but 
the army, says the Chronicler, " was of as little profit 
as it had been many times before." In the late 
autumn the Danes made their way, unmolested and 
with all their booty, to their winter quarters in the 
Isle of Wight. Finding their stores run short, they 
crossed to the mainland about Christmas time, and 
ravaged Hampshire and Berkshire, till they reached 
the Thames at Reading Marching up the valley of 
the river they came to Wallingford and utterly de- 
stroyed it. From Wallingford they turned westward 
to Wantage and Farnborough. Near Farnborough 
rises the range of the Illsley Downs. To one of 
the heights, now called Cuckamsley Hill, there 
attached the prophecy that the Danes who should 
climb it should never see the sea again. The 
invaders ventured to defy it, and escaped unhurt 
They climbed the height, and then turned home- 
wards through East Wiltshire. At Marlborough 
they were intercepted by an English army. It fared 
as ill as English armies commonly did in this most 
unlucky reign. " It was straightway put to flight, 
and the Pagans carried off their booty to the sea." 



BUYING OFF THE PAGANS. 279 

The Chronicler is particularly contemptuous of the 
behaviour of the men of Winchester, whom he calls 
" a cowardly and dishonourable herd." Ethelred, 
meanwhile, was keeping Christmas in Shropshire at 
a safe distance from the scene of war. Something, 
however, had to be done ; county after county of 
Wessex itself was being ravaged by the invaders, and 
even the remote Shropshire would not long be safe. 
Nothing better could be thought of by the King 
" lacking of council " * and his nobles after frequent 
consultations than the old device, so often tried in 
vain before, of buying off the enemy. " The King 
and his nobles resolved that for the benefit of the 
whole realm, they should pay tribute to the Pagans, 
though indeed they did it most unwillingly." Another 
treaty was made. The money had to be raised. Till 
this was done the Danes were fed. Early in the next 
year the ransom was ready, thirty thousand pounds, 
according to some accounts thirty-six thousand. The 
money seems to have purchased a short respite. For 
that year and the two that followed it we hear no 
more of the Danes. 

The only entry which the Chronicler makes under 
the year 1007, besides the payment of the tribute, is 
that " Edric was made Alderman of Mercia," adding 
nothing about him good or bad. But Edric was a 
notable person, and one who seems to have done 
much mischief. Many thought that he was the 
suggester of the massacre of St. Brice's day. Florence 
of Worcester speaks of him as "a man of humble birth, 
whose tongue had won for him riches and rank, of 

1 This is the meaning of " Unready." 



280 THE VENGEANCE FOR ST. BRICE'S DAY. 

great craft and persuasive eloquence, who surpassed 
all the men of his time in jealousy of others and 
treachery, and no less in pride and cruelty." Accord- 
ing to the pithy words of another chronicler x he was 
made by the overruling of God for the ruin of the 
English chief of Mercia. He seems to have married 
one of Ethelred's daughters, at or about the date of 
his elevation to the Aldermanship, and was for 
some time to come a thoroughly bad influence in 
the councils of the kingdom. 

In 1008 a serious effort was made to make provision 
for the safety of England during the interval of peace. 
" The King commanded that ships should be made 
with all speed throughout the land of England." 
One ship of war was to be furnished by every three 
hundred and ten hides of land. Every eight hides 
were to supply in addition a helmet and a breastplate. 
The fleet was built, but it proved as useless as all the 
other attempts of the Unready King. There were> 
indeed, more ships than had ever before been seen in 
England in the days of any king ; and they must 
have made a goodly show when they were assembled 
at Sandwich to guard the coast against the heathen 
invaders. But they did absolutely nothing. One 
Britric, a brother of the favourite Edric, accused to 
the King a certain Wulfnoth, 2 who held some office of 
trust in Sussex. Wulfnoth fled and took some twenty 
ships with him. Naturally he had no other means of 
supporting himself and his followers besides piracy, 

1 Henry of Huntingdon. 

2 Wulfnoth is described by the Chronicler as the " father of Count 
Godwin," a person of whom, and of whose family, we shall hear much 
hereafter. 



HAMPSHIRE AND BERKSHIRE RAVAGED. 28 1 

and to this he seems to have taken at once, " plunder- 
ing all the south coast, and doing much damage." 
Britric pursued him with eighty ships, hoping to take 
him dead or alive. But a storm, "such as had never 
been known," drove the ships ashore, and Wulfnoth, 
who seems to have been safe in harbour while it raged, 
came upon them and burnt them. For what followed 
it is impossible to account. One might think that 
there was an evil spell over everything that Ethelred 
undertook. " The King returned home with his 
nobles and chiefs, leaving for so light a cause his 
ships and people ; and the men that were in the 
ships rowed them to London. So they suffered 
all the labour of the nation to be so speedily 
wasted, nor was the terror of the land in any ways 
diminished." 

Of course the Danes were as ready to seize the 
opportunity as Ethelred was unready. No sooner 
was the English fleet dispersed than they came with 
ships without number to Sandwich. Canterbury 
purchased safety, probably with some of the wealth 
of St. Augustine's foundation ; and the men of East 
Kent gave three thousand pounds to get rid of the 
enemy. They sailed westward, and landing on the 
Hampshire coast, plundered and burnt that county 
and Berkshire. The King raised an army and cut 
off their retreat. But Edric did what Elfin had done 
ten years before. " All the people were ready to 
attack them, but Edric hindered them, as he ever 
did." 

Late in the autumn the Danes settled in winter 
quarters near the mouth of the Thames. They 



282 THE VENGEANCE FOR ST. BRICE'S DAY. 

found supplies in the neighbouring districts. London 
was more than once attacked by them, but always 
without success. " There," says the Chronicler, "they 
were always ill received." With the beginning of the 
year they moved out of their quarters, marched past 
London, and ravaged the whole valley of the Thames 
as far as Oxford (which town they burnt). An army 
had been collected at London to intercept their 
return, but they avoided it by leaving the Thames at 
Staines, marching southward through Surrey, and so 
got back with their plunder to their ships in Kent. 

The next year (ioio) was one of continuous disas- 
ter, but it at least began with a gallant attempt at 
resistance. The Danes landed near Ipswich, and 
found Ulfkytel, the hero of the victory of six years 
before, waiting for them. " The East Anglians 
straightway fled, but the men of Cambridge bravely 
stood their ground." A long list of English nobles, 
headed by one Athelstan, son-in-law to the King, 
follows, as having been slain in the fight. Then 
follows the important fact : "The flight was begun 
by Thurkytel " The name indicates Danish descent ; 
and this may have had something to do with the 
man's treachery ; but Ulfkytel, too, must have been 
an Anglo-Dane ; so that men of the mixed blood 
could be faithful to the land of their birth. After 
this defeat all resistance ceased. " The Paeans 
possessed all East Anglia, and ravaged it for the 
space of three months. They went into the far 
country, and slew both men and cattle. And they 
burnt both Thetford and Cambridge." Oxfordshire 
and Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Bedford- 



DEMORALISED STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 283 

shire were ravaged, and all, it would seem, without 
any effort to resist. The Chronicler is very sarcastic 
on the futility of the English rulers: "When the 
Pagans were in the east, then the King's forces were 
kept in the west ; and when they were in the southern 
region, our armies were in the northern." At last a 
council was called, but for all the good it did, it might 
never have been held. All spirit seems to have been 
driven out of the men who should have stood forth to 
defend their country. " No governor was willing to 
gather his men together ; neither did any county help 
another." 

In ion we have another return to the miserable 
system of buying off the enemy. And even this 
wretched plan, the Chronicler complains, was always 
resorted to too late. It was after they had ravaged, 
not before, everything that the money was offered to 
them. Things, indeed, were in a desperate state. A 
dismal list is given of the regions which the invaders 
held in undisputed possession. They had East Anglia 
and Essex and Middlesex, Oxfordshire, Cambridge- 
shire, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, 
and half of Huntingdonshire. On the south side of 
the Thames they had all Kent and Sussex, and Surrey 
and Berkshire, and a great part of Wiltshire. And 
now happened one of the great tragedies that have 
made their mark on the hearts of Englishmen. 

In the late summer the Danes approached Canter- 
bury. It was either too poor to purchase their for- 
bearance, as it had done three years before, or the 
Archbishop Alphage, a man of resolute temper, was 
unwilling to submit again to such a disgrace. Any- 



284 THE VENGEANCE FOR ST. BRICKS DAY. 

how, the gates were closed, and the city prepared to 
stand a siege. But treachery was at work here as else- 
where. This time it was an ecclesiastic, one Elfmer, 
who had received some great kindness from the Arch- 
bishop, that played the part of a traitor. A vast 
number of prisoners was taken — " how many," says 
the Chronicler, " cannot be told." When they had 
plundered the city at their pleasure, the Danes re- 
turned to their ships, taking the Archbishop with 
them. They kept their prisoner till the Easter of the 
next year, expecting to get a large ransom for him 
-The Chronicler says nothing of his having made any 
promise that this ransom should be paid. Later ac- 
counts tell us that such promise was made, and that 
the Archbishop refused to keep it, declaring that he had 
sinned in making it, and that he would not rob his 
countrymen to purchase his freedom or his life. The 
Danes were furious at their disappointment. He was 
brought before a council of nobles on the Saturday in 
Easter week. The council saems to have been held 
after a feast, and the Danes were excited with wine, 
of which they had just received a bountiful supply 
from France. They pelted the Archbishop as he 
stood before them with a shower of bones and bul- 
locks' horns. At last one of them, a Dane whom he 
had himself converted and confirmed, put an end to 
his sufferings by cleaving his head with an axe. His 
body was given up to his countrymen, and buried by 
them with great state in the Cathedral of St. Paul's in 
London. The title of martyr was conferred upon him 
by his contemporaries, and has remained attached to 
his name down to this day. The day of his death, 



FORTY-EIGHT THOUSAND POUNDS RANSOM. 285 

April 19th, is still marked by his name in the Calendar 
of the Anglican Church. 

Shortly after the murder of the Archbishop, the 
ransom for England, forty-eight thousand pounds, was 
paid. The money was wasted, like all that had been 
spent in the same way before. But what we may call 
a really valuable purchase was made at the same time. 
Among the chiefs of the Danish fleet was one Thorkill, 
who seems to have been better than some of his fellows. 
He had endeavoured to save the Archbishop's life, 
offering all that he had, except his ship, by way of 
ransom. This Thorkill now took service with Ethel- 
red, and brought with him five- and -forty ships, a force 
which was soon to be nearly all that was left to the 
English king. 

And now Sweyn himself again appears upon the 
scene. William of Malmesbury speaks of his having 
been invited over by Thorkill. But the truth is that 
he needed no invitation, and, if he had, Thorkill, who 
resolutely opposed him when he came, was not the 
man to give it. He had probably been biding his 
time, till he saw England in the last stage of exhaus- 
tion, and now came to take possession of what was 
virtually a conquered country. If Thorkill had any- 
thing to do with his coming, it was by proving to him 
the necessity of acting before a rival of his own race 
became formidably strong. 

Some time in 1013 1 Sweyn sailed to England. 
One of the writers of the next generation gives a 
gorgeous description of his fleet. The beaks of the 

1 One account says, "in the spring." The Chronicler has, "before 
the month of August." 



2S6 THE VENGEANCE FOR ST. BULGE'S DAY. 

ships were of brass, the sterns adorned with lions of 
gold. On the mastheads were shapes of birds and 
dragons for weather-cocks. Figures of men, of bulls, 
of dolphins were to be seen as figure-heads. Sweyn 
had with him his younger son Canute and that warrior- 
saint, Olaf of Norway, whom he probably brought with 
him because he was unwilling to leave him behind. 
The fleet touched at Sandwich, but then, by a change 
of policy in the Danish king, sailed northwards to the 
Humber. From the Humber he turned into the 
Trent, and proceeded up that river as far as Gains- 
borough. Here Uhtred, Alderman of Northumber- 
land, gave in his adhesion. The example was followed 
by the Five Burghs, and, indeed, by all England to 
the north of Watling Street. Once more the Dane- 
law was separated from England, and the work of the 
successors of Alfred was undone. Hostages were 
given by the principal towns, and these, together with 
the fleet, were given over to the care of the young 
Canute. Meanwhile the King pursued his conquests. 
" Never did army," says the Chronicler, " do more 
damage than his." Oxford submitted to him, and 
gave hostages ; Winchester did the same. From 
Winchester he marched eastward to London, and 
there for the first time he met with resistance. 
"The citizens would not surrender themselves, but 
fought fiercely against him, having with them King 
Ethelred and Thorkill." The valiant Londoners once 
more held their own, and Sweyn retreated up the 
valley of the Thames as far as Wallingford, and thence 
again to Bath. At Bath all the nobles of the West 
came in and submitted themselves. From Bath Sweyn 



SWEYN VIRTUALLY KING OF ENGLAND. 2&J 

went northwards to his fleet, " and all the nation ac- 
knowledged him for their true king," London itself 
feeling constrained to follow the example. The 
citizens had to find hostages, and also to provide 
for the Danes. At the same time Thorkill was de- 
manding supplies of war ; for his fleet, which lay at 
Greenwich, was still faithful to the English king. 

Before long, Ethelred gave up the struggle. His 
Queen Emma had already crossed the sea to her 
brother, Richard of Normandy, taking with her her 
two sons. The King kept his Christmas in the Isle 
of Wight, where he was safe under the protection of 
his Danish mercenaries, and then crossed the sea to 
Normandy. 

Sweyn was now virtually King of England. But it 
does not appear that he was ever formally crowned. 
Indeed, he died but a few weeks after Ethelred's 
departure. "He died," says the Chronicler, "on 
Candlemas." * Later accounts embellished this simple 
mention of his death with some wonderful details. 
The King, according to them, had demanded a vast 
ransom from the town of St. Edmundsbury, under a 
threat of destroying town and abbey, and slaughter- 
ing all the inhabitants of both. He repeated these 
threats to the envoys of the town in an assembly held 
at Gainsborough. But when he had uttered them the 
holy saint and martyr, King Edmund, approached 
him, visible only to Sweyn, and ran him through with 
his spear. The next day he expired in agony. Ac- 
cording to another narrative, he named Canute as his 
successor, bade him study the doctrines of Christianity, 

1 February 2nd. 



288 THE VENGEANCE FOR ST. BRICE'S DAY. 

and strictly enjoined on him to carry away his body 
for burial in his native land. 

The Danish fleet gladly accepted the succession of 
the young Canute. 1 But he was not to become King 
of England without a long and fierce struggle. The 
bishops and nobles met in assembly, and resolved to 
call Ethelred back to his throne. " No lord," they 
said in the letter they sent to him, " was dearer to 
them than their natural lord, if only he would govern 
them more righteously than he had hitherto done." 
Ethelred's answer, sent by his son Edward, was a 
greeting to his people, a promise that he would be a 
faithful lord to them, would amend all that had been 
done amiss, and pardon all that had been done or said 
against him. This message he followed up by return- 
ing to England in the early spring. 

Canute rsmained at Gainsborough till Easter, occu- 
pying his troops with the usual plundering of the 
country. Apparently he was not prepared for the 
vigorous action of Ethelred, who came with a strong 
force into Lindsey, the Gainsborough district of Lin- 
colnshire. Anyhow he did not hold his ground, but 
sailed southward to Sandwich, leaving the unhappy 
Anglo-Danes of Lindsey to be wasted with fire and 
sword by the English king. Canute revenged him- 
self for the attack made on him by mutilating the 
hostages whom the English towns had put into his 
hands. 

But with counsellors such as Edric near the throne, 
nothing was likely to prosper. An assembly was held 
early in the year at Oxford. Among the nobles who 
1 He must have been about eighteen years of age. 



CANUTE RAVAGES THE WEST COUNTRY. 289 

attended it were two Anglo-Danes, Morcar and 
Sigferth, from Northumbria. Edric murdered them, 
and ordered the tower of the cathedral, in which their 
attendants took refuge, to be set on ,fire. Their 
possessions were seized by Edmund, 1 one of the 
king's sons, who also married Aldgyth, widow of 
Sigferth, taking her from the custody of the Abbot 
of Malmesbury, to which she had been committed by 
the king's order. 

Canute, who had sailed to Denmark, after his ven- 
geance on the hostages, had come back with a great 
fleet, as numerous and as splendidly equipped as 
that which his father had brought with him two years 
before. He had now been joined by Thorkill, who, 
for some reason which we do not know, had deserted 
Etheked. The Danish fleet touched at Sandwich, 
then sailing along the South Coast, disembarked the 
army that it carried at Poole, in Dorsetshire. The 
invaders ravaged Dorsetshire, Wiltshire, and Somerset- 
shire. Ethelred was lying sick at Cosham in Wilt- 
shire, but Edmund and Edric were in the field — each 
at the head of an army. When united they must 
have made a formidable force, but treachery as usual 
interfered to prevent any good result. " Edric sought 
to lead the Atheling 2 astray, but could not. Then 
they departed from each other without giving battle, 
and yielded the field to their enemies. Edric also 
drew over to himself forty ships from the King's fleet, 
and submitted himself to Canute." This act of 



1 Afterwards called " Ironsides." 

2 The English equivalent for prince. 



290 THE VENGEANCE FOR ST. BRICE's DAY. 

treason was the signal for the submission of a large 
part of Western England to the Danish king. 

In the following year (1016) the gallant Edmund 
was again baffled in his efforts to resist the progress 
of the Danish power. Canute opened the campaign 
by ravaging the Midlands ; Edmund gathered an 
army to meet him ; but he could get no support. 
Ethelred, who was at London, was deterred from 
joining him with such forces as he could raise in that 
city by rumours of treachery, and Edmund was com- 
pelled to disband his own army. Then he raised 
fresh forces ; this time by the help of his wife's brother, 
Utred of Northumbria. But Utred x deserted him, 
on the approach of Canute, to whom he gave in his 
submission. 

Nothing but London, where Ethelred still found 
shelter, remained to the house of Alfred. Edmund 
hastened to join him there, and Canute also, who had 
gone southwards to Poole, after the settlement of 
Northumbria, set sail with the intention of attacking 
the city. He had not reached it when Ethelred, who 
had long been suffering from sickness, died (April 
23, 1016). 

England had now two kings. Canute was crowned 
by command of an assembly which met at South- 
ampton ; another which was gathered in London 
gave the crown to Edmund. 

Canute at once proceeded to claim his kingdom. 
He sailed up the Thames, and laid siege to London 
with a fleet that numbered, it was said, three hundred 

1 Utred was put to death by Canute at the instigation of Edric, who 
succeeded to his earldom of Northumbria. 



A SUCCESSION OF FIERCE BATTLES. 



291 



and forty sail. He could not pass the bridge which 
then spanned the river, probably at the same place 
where London Bridge now stands. He then made a 
great ditch, on the southern bank, drew nine of his 
ships through it, and then got command of the 
upper river. The city, however, still held out, and 
an assault made on the walls was repulsed with great 
loss by the citizens. Not long afterwards, Canute 




OLD LONDON BRIDGE. 

{Earliest known representation, nt/i Century.) 

raised the siege and marched westwards to encounter 
his rival ; a succession of fierce battles followed. 

Edmund won a victory over a small Danish force 
near Gillingham, in Dorsetshire. Then he met 
Canute himself at Sherston, 1 in Wiltshire. He put 
his best men in the front rank, and kept the rest 

1 Possibly the Sherston near Malmesbury, but the identification of the 
place is doubtful. 



292 THE VENGEANCE FOR ST. BRICE'S DAY. 

for a reserve. After exhorting them to do their 
best for country and home, he gave the signal for 
battle. Edmund himself was everywhere, directing 
as a general and fighting as a soldier. The enemy, 
with whom were ranged the men of Hampshire and 
Wiltshire under Edric, were too strong to be repulsed, 
and the battle was undecided. It was renewed next 
day. Edmund made a gallant attempt to strike 
down Canute himself. He succeeding in cleaving 
his rival's shield, and in wounding his horse. Over- 
powering numbers then forced him to retire. It 
was then, according to the narrative of the battle, 
that the traitor, Edric, holding up the head of one 
Osmar, who was strangely like to Edmund, cried out 
to the men of Dorset and Devon, that their king was 
slain, and bade them submit. Edmund, however, 
showed himself to his troops, and stopped the panic. 
The second day left the battle still undecided, but 
Canute broke up his camp that night, and returned 
to London. To London Edmund followed him, and 
succeeding in raising the siege of that city. He won 
another victory over the Danes at Brentford. Then 
something drew him off to the West. He returned, 
and again vanquished the enemy at Otford, in Kent, 
and so, says the Chronicler, would have utterly 
destroyed them, but that Edric kept him at Eglesford. 
What means he used we do not know, and cannot 
guess. The Chroniclers seem to have attributed all 
failures and reverses to this malignant influence. 

The last and greatest battle of the war was fought 
at Aslingdon, in South-eastern Essex. Edmund 
drew up his force in three lines, and at first stood on 



THE BATTLE OF ASLINGDON. 293 

the defensive. But Canute, though urged by Thorkill 
to attack, was too cautious to do so. When he began 
to move, it was seemingly to make his way to his 
ships, the very thing which Edmund was eager to 
prevent. When he saw this, therefore, he gave the 
signal for battle, and charged down the hill upon the 
enemy. He led the attack himself, and charged the 
enemy, sword in hand, like a thunderbolt, as one of 
the Chroniclers expresses it. The Danes began to 
give ground before this furious onset, and it seemed 
as if a really decisive victory might be won. Then 
the bad genius of England intervened. " Edric took 
flight with the men of Herefordshire, and betrayed 
his natural lord and the whole English people." It 
is an inexplicable mystery how the traitor was fighting 
on the English side, and, it would seem, in high com- 
mand. The English still held out, but it was with a 
weakened and broken line. The battle was not ended 
by darkness. When the moon rose English and Danes 
were still engaged in the struggle. At last victory 
plainly declared for the invaders, and the English 
fled in all directions, Edmund himself hastening from 
the field. Some of the noblest chiefs of England 
fell on that fatal day, among them Ulfkytel, the brave 
East Anglian whom we have seen twice doing battle 
with the Danes. Great Churchmen, too, were slain 
on the field of battle, the Bishop of Dorchester, and 
Wulfrig, Abbot of Ramsey, among them. 

Edmund was still unvanquished. He raised another 
army, and prepared to fight again for his throne. But 
the nobles were weary of battle, and persuaded him to 
make peace. The two kings met on a little island in 



294 



THE VENGEANCE FOR ST. BRICE^S DAY. 



the Severn, and there agreed to a partition of the 
kingdom, Edmund was to have Southern, Canute 
Northern England. 

It was but for a short time that this partition 
remained in force. On St. Andrew's Day (Nov. 30th), 
Edmund Ironsides died. The cause of death is un- 
certain. He had done enough in the last few months 
of his life to exhaust the powers even of a healthy 
man, and we know that the princes of his house were 
not healthy. Of course his death was attributed to 
violence ; equally of course Edric was named as the 
murderer. He was buried at Glastonbury by the side 
of his grandfather, Edgar the Peaceable. 




XXVII. 

CANUTE. 

It is impossible to say what were really the terms 
of the treaty by which England was divided between 
Canute and Edmund — were these thereafter to be two 
kingdoms, handed down to the heirs of each prince ? 
or was the survivor of the two to inherit the whole ? 
Canute contended for the latter view, and summoned 
a great assembly of nobles and Churchmen to meet 
at London for the settlement of the question. Some 
of these great personages had been present at the 
making of the treaty. They swore — for the treaty 
itself does not seem to have been produced — that 
Edmund had made no stipulation as to the succes- 
sion of his brother, and that he had provided for the 
interests of his children, by arranging that Canute 
should be their guardian till they reached their 
majority. This settled the question of the succession, 
and Canute was acknowledged without further diffi- 
culty as King of England. Early in the next year 
(1017) he was solemnly crowned at London. He 
received the usual vows of obedience from his new 
subjects, and swore in return that he would rule them 
justly. All enmity between Englishmen and Danes 



296 CANUTE. . 

was to cease, all past grudges were to be forgotten. 
The brother of the late king, the Atheling Edric, 
was outlawed, and his children were sent out of the 
country — first to Olaf of Sweden, and from him to 
Stephen, King of Hungary. 1 There still remained 
a possible enemy in Emma, the widow of Ethelred, 
who, with her children, was now living at the Court 
•of her brother, Richard of Normandy. Canute made 
her an offer of marriage, which she did not hesitate 
to accept. There was no little difference in their 
ages, for Emma had become the wife of Ethelred 
when her second husband was but seven years of 
age. But the " Gem of the Normans " was, doubtless, 
still beautiful, and Canute may have been moved by 
love as well as by policy in offering her marriage. 
Emma made no effort to secure the rights of her 
children by her first husband. It was stipulated that 
the crown of England should descend to any heir 
whom she might bear to Canute. When in the 
course of the year the outlawed Edric came to his 
end 2 Canute felt himself secure on his new throne, 
as far as rivals of the English royal house were con- 
cerned. But there were still persons of whom he was 
anxious to rid himself. It was not long before Edric 

1 It was said that Canute wished Olaf to put these children to death, 
as likely afterwards to become troublesome claimants of the throne. 
Olaf was unwilling either to commit this crime, or to offend his powerful 
neighbour by protecting possible rivals, and sent them to Hungary. 
Edmund, the elder of the two, married one of Stephen's daughters, 
and died in early manhood without children ; of the younger, Edward, 
we shall hear again. 

2 According to the more commonly accepted account, he was assassi- 
nated by order of Canute. William of Malmesbury declares that he 
returned secretly to England, and died of grief. 



DANEGELT OF £82,500. 207 

the traitor met with the reward of his many misdeeds. 
Canute, very soon after his coronation, had appointed 
him Earl of Mercia. But on the occasion of a visit 
to the Court angry words arose between the king and 
the earl. Edric is said to have boasted of having first 
deserted and then murdered King Edmund. There- 
upon Canute burst out : " Therefore you shall die, for 
you are guilty of treason both to God and to me." 
Whether he was killed in the King's presence or 
secretly strangled is doubtful, but he certainly dis- 
appears from history. Some time afterwards 1 Thorkill 
the Dane, who had received the government of East 
Anglia, was banished. Other nobles, both Englishmen 
and Danes, were got rid of in the same way. Finally 
the King relieved himself of the dangerously large 
force which he had brought with him from home. 
A Danegelt of ,£82,500 was exacted from the king- 
dom, a tenth of it being levied in London, and the 
fleet was sent back to Denmark. 

In the year after his accession Canute held a great 
council at Oxford. The result of their deliberations 
may be briefly summed up by saying that they de- 
creed that the laws of King Edgar should be observed. 
The days of Edgar the Peacemaker were, it is evident, 
looked back to as a golden age when equal justice 
was done between man and man. " In this year," 
says the Chronicler, and it is all that he says, " Eng- 
lishmen and Danes were made to be of one mind at 
Oxford." 

In 1019 Canute felt himself sufficiently well settled 

1 He was actually banished in 102 1, but it is convenient to mention 
the event in this connection. 



29B CANUTE. 

on the English throne to be able to pay a visit to 
Denmark. He "abode there the whole winter," and 
busied himself with extending his dominions. His 
achievements in this way would have little or no con- 
nection with English history, but that they served 
to bring into notice a great Englishman of whom we 
shall hear much hereafter. 

Godwin, son of Wulfnoth, 1 had been promoted to 
high office shortly after the accession of Canute. He 
now accompanied him on his visit to Denmark, in 
command, it would seem, of a contingent of English 
soldiers. The Danish king marched against his 
northern neighbours, the Wends. The two armies 
lay encamped close to each other, and in the night 
Godwin and his Englishmen attacked the enemy and 
captured their camp. Canute, in gratitude for this 
service, loaded the English leader with honours, gave 
him Gytha, the sister of the Danish Earl Ulf, to wife, 
and on his return to England in the following year 
made him Earl of Wessex. 2 

In 1020 Canute made a thankoffering for his victory 
at Assandune, which is memorable in more ways than 
one. " He went to Assandune," says the Chronicler, 
44 and suffered that there should be built there a church 
of stone and rubble for the souls of the men who had 
been slain in that place, and gave it to a certain 
priest, whose name was Stigand. If this Stigand was 
the brave archbishop who was one of the last English- 

T There are several accounts of the parentage of Godwin, but this 
seems the most probable. 

2 William of Malmesbury transfers the whole of this story to the 
year 102$ and to another war. 



CANUTE* S JOURNEY TO ROME. 299 

men to hold out against the Norman Conquerors, this 
was a notable appointment. 

Of the home history of England during the re- 
mainder of Canute's reign there is little to tell. It 
was a time of peace, such as the country had not 
enjoyed since the days of Edgar. Its most notable 
incidents were the King's journey to Rome in 1027, 
and his legislation, which may be assigned to the 
years 1028-1035. His letter, addressed from Rome 
to " the two archbishops, to all bishops and nobles, 
and to all the nation of the English " is a remarkable 
document. He declares that he had been to Rome 
to pray for the forgiveness of his sins, for the safety 
of his dominion, and of the people under his govern- 
ment. He describes the honourable treatment which 
he had received, and the concessions which he had 
gained from foreign princes, that his subjects should 
visit the Holy City without hindrance, and from the 
Pope that English archbishops should not have to 
pay the vast sums which had before been demanded 
of them for their palls. 1 And he then goes on, 
" Since I have vowed to God Himself henceforward 
to reform my life in all things, and justly and piously 
to govern the kingdom and peoples subject to me, 
and to maintain equal justice in all things ; and have 
determined through God's assistance to set right 
anything hitherto unjustly done, either through the 
intemperances of my youth, or through negligence, 
therefore I call to witness and command my coun- 
sellors, to whom I have entrusted the government of 
my kingdom, that they by no means, either through 

x See p. 256. 



300 CANUTE. 

fear of myself, or favour to any powerful person, suffer 
henceforth any injustice, or cause such to obtain in 
all my kingdom." 

These good intentions he seems to have honestly 
endeavoured to carry out by the legislation which 
occupied his attention during the latter part of his 
reign, whenever he was not occupied with the affairs 
of the other countries which owned his power. The 
substance of this legislation may be thus stated : 

i. Justice was to be administered strictly, but 
mercifully, with a scrupulous regard for human life. 
The weak and poor were to be pitied, the powerful 
visited with the full rigour of the law. 

2. The trade in slaves, as carried on by sending 
Christians into foreign countries, was prohibited. 

3. All Pagan rites of worship and superstitious 
observances, such as the worship of sun and moon, 
of trees, of stones, or fountains, were forbidden. All 
witches and soothsayers were to be severely punished. 

4. The English and Danish systems of law were to 
prevail thenceforward in the districts in which they 
had before been in force. 

5. The dues paid to the King were lightened in 
amount, and settled on a fixed principle, exactions 
that had become customary being abolished. What 
we should now call the " game laws " were put on a 
reasonable footing, which compares favourably with 
the jealous tyranny exercised in this matter by 
the Norman kings. Canute's words are, " 1 will 
that every man have his hunting in wood and field 
on his own possessions, but let him beware my 
hunting." 



ORGANIZATION OF THE HOUSE CARLES. 30I 

Order was provided for by the institution of a 
force which had some likeness to a standing army, at 
least to that part of it which is especially attached to 
the person of the sovereign. 1 The " House Carles " 
— this was the name of the force — were originally 
the crews of that part of the fleet which Canute 
retained in England. As time went on they must 
have been recruited from other sources, and we hear 
of persons not Danes being enrolled among them. 
Originally indeed they must have included men of 
^rious nationalities, and it is probable that during 
the eighteen years of Canute's reign not a few Eng- 
lishmen were enlisted among them. Canute never 
showed any jealousy of the English ; on the contrary, 
he seems to have had a distinct preference for them, 
as he certainly looked upon England as his chief 
kingdom. One authority describes the House Carles 
as "an army gathered out of various nations, of such, 
that is to say, as were subject to the king's rule." It 
is not clear what were the number of the force. One 
writer says that there were six thousand of them. 
This would allow a crew of one hundred and fifty 
for each ship. Rut it is not likely that the ships were 
entirely stripped of their crews. It is more probable 
that the fighting men were taken out of them. Were 
we to halve the number we should get a total of 
three thousand, and this is the figure actually men- 

1 Called in England the "Household Troops," a name given to the 
regiments of Life Guards (cavalry). The relation of these to the 
sovereign is particularly close. They are under his personal orders. 
The infantry regiments of the "Guards" (Grenadiers, Coldstreams, 
and Fusiliers) were originally on a similar footing, but are now simply 
a corps (F elite of the general army. 



302 CANUTE, 

V 

tioned by another writer. They may have been 
afterwards increased. The smaller number would 
suffice for putting down any casual outbreak, or for 
forming the nucleus of a larger army when such 
might be wanted. And their cost would certainly 
be as much as could be easily borne by the mode- 
rate revenues of an English king in the eleventh 
century. 

Of the relations in which they stood to the people 
we know little or nothing. We may be sure that 
they would need to be kept in strict order, and we 
may also feel tolerably certain that Canute was the 
man to do this very effectively. Stories are told of 
their violence to the English, and it is not impossible 
that these may be true. Soldiers in a conquered 
country are apt to be violent, and England was, in a 
degree, a conquered country, though Canute did his 
best to bring about a better state of things. Perhaps 
it would be safe to conjecture that during his reign 
such misconduct would be the exception, because 
regarded with disfavour by a master whom the Carles 
did not venture to despise, that in the days of his 
worthless sons it came to be the rule. 

An interesting story is told of Canute's own rela- 
tion to this force. In a fit of passion the King killed 
one of the Carles with his own hand. When he 
came to himself, he felt the deepest repentance for 
his violence, and submitted himself to the judgment 
of the whole body. They were embarrassed at having 
to deal with so powerful a criminal, and refused to 
pronounce any sentence. Then the King took the 
law into his own hands, and imposed upon himself a 



CANUTE FAVOURS THE CHURCH. 303 

fine for bloodshed x nine times greater than that 
which would ordinarily have been paid. 

Among the good resolutions which Canute an- 
nounced in his famous letter from Rome was one, 
that thereafter the Church should have its dues 
regularly paid. This he seems to have kept, and 
more than kept, for he was a liberal benefactor to 
religious persons and foundations. It was, indeed, 
to monks and monasteries that this liberality was 
chiefly shown. This was the feeling of his time. 
The strict rule and ascetic life of these inhabitants of 
the cloister appealed to the feelings of men who 
lived in the world, and spent their days, for the most 
part in violence and rude pleasures. The secular 
clergy seemed, and indeed may often have been, too 
much like themselves. Canterbury, Winchester, and 
Ramsey 2 are mentioned as some of the monasteries 
on which the King and his Queen Emma bestowed 
their bounty. Another foundation which he had 
many reasons for favouring was that of St. Edmund, 
the East Anglian king and martyr. The saint had 
met his death from Danish hands, and had showed, 
according to the story which has already been told, 
that he had not forgotten his wrongs, and was able 
to avenge them. Accordingly we find Canute re- 
building the church which had been dedicated to the 
saint in the town now called St. Edmundsbury. And 

1 This fine, a very ancient and wide-spread custom, was called the 
"were-gild," and varied according to the rank of the person slain, 
from the "were-gild" of a king, which was fixed at ^360, to that of 
a churl, fixed at ^10. 

2 Ramsey is in Huntingdonshire. The abbey was founded in 
969. 



1 




p 


fefPi 


l|; :? 




i; !:;i;;;::i:;i!::!;i::;;j:;i|!':. . .;: 




ELY. 305 

he had, if we may believe tradition, a special liking 
for Ely. A stanza is said to have been improvised 
by him as he was passing in his barge along the 
Cam, the river which flows by Ely. It may be thus 
modernized : 

" The Ely monks sang clenr and high 
As King Canute was passing by. 
' Row near the door and hear them sing,' 
Cried to his kn ghts Canute the king.'' I 

" Merie siengen the muneches biunen Ely 
Do Cnut ching ren ther by 
Roweth enichtes noer tha land 
And here we thes muneches saeng." 

(The letters peculiar to old English have been changed to their 
modern equivalents.) 

Though we are chiefly concerned with Canute's 
doings as an English king, we must not forget that 
he had other dominions. Denmark he inherited 
from his father, of Norway he possessed himself 
after a fierce struggle with that turbulent saint, Olaf 
of Norway. He made a claim to this kingdom in 
1024, and enforced it by an expedition in 1027 
(apparently after his return from Rome), and again 
by another, made with a much stronger force, in 
the year following. Olaf was quite unable to make 
any resistance, and fled into Sweden. Two years 
afterwards he was invited back by some discontented 
nobles, and was defeated, not so much by the forces 
of Canute, as by the Norwegian peasants at the 

1 The form in which these verses come down to us is much later 
than Canute's time, indeed is not earlier than the thirteenth century. 



306 CANUTE. 

battle of Vaerdalen * (1030). Sweden has been said 
to have been one of his kingdoms. This is an error, 
though he possibly was master of some few places 
which are now included in the Swedish territories. 
Besides being king of England, he was overlord of 
Scotland, his power, reaching as far as the Hebrides, 
which, indeed, had for many years been largely occu- 
pied by men of Danish race. Ireland also owned 
his supremacy, for we find that coins were minted in 
his name at Dublin. Altogether, at least during the 
latter years of his life, he had a wide-reaching and 
solid dominion, and may well have cherished the idea 
which has been attributed to him, of founding a great 
northern empire. 

Of his relations with foreign powers not much is 
known. When he was at Rome he met the Emperor, 
Conrad II., and, indeed, was present at his coronation. 
With this prince he made a treaty by which some 
portions of Denmark, which had been seized by one 
of Conrad's predecessors, were to be restored. The 
alliance was strengthened by the betrothal of one of 
Canute's daughters to the Emperor. Of his dealings 
with the Norman Dukes a not very clear story is told. 
It seems evident that there was some quarrel between 
Canute and Duke Robert, who had succeeded his 
father, Richard, in 1028. Robert had married Estrith, 
Canute's sister, and widow of Earl Ulf. He is said to 

1 Otherwise called Sticklestead. The adherence of the peasants to 
the cause of Canute may be taken as a proof of the popularity of his 
rule ; but it doubtless had something to do with the quarrel between 
Christianity and Paganism. The Norwegian people were still, in a great 
measure, heathen, while Olaf was an enthusiastic champion of Chris- 
tianity, which he preached in a somewhat violent way. 



DEATH OF CANUTE. 307 

have neglected and ill-treated her, and even to have 
sent her back to England. Besides this he claimed 
the crown of England for his cousin, the son of 
King Ethelred by Emma, one of the princes whose 
rights we have seen so quietly put aside on the oc- 
casion of their mother's second marriage. 

What was actually done is not so easy to decide. 
The northern chroniclers declare that Canute made 
two expeditions against Normandy, that Robert fled to 
Jerusalem to avoid his vengeance, and that he himself 
met with his death before Rouen. All this seems to 
be fiction. What is more likely to be true is that the 
Duke fitted out a fleet with which he intended to in- 
vade England and restore the English princes to the 
throne of their father ; that this fleet met with rough 
weather, and was driven out of its course ; that finally 
peace was made between the two princes. One of the 
chroniclers relates that in his day the remains of the 
ships with which Duke Robert had made this unsuc- 
ful attempt was still to be seen at Rouen. 

In 1035 Canute died. We know nothing of the cir- 
cumstances of his death except that it took place at 
Shaftesbury. He could not have been more than forty 
years of age. 

The king who thus passed away in the flower of his 
manhood, respected if not beloved by his people, and 
soon to be very passionately regretted by them, was a 
very different man from the violent youth, who, some 
seventeen years before, had been crowned king in 
London. But though the change was great, it was 
still one that we can understand and account for. 
Canute felt strongly that England was, of all his 



308 CANUTE. 

possessions, the one which was best worth having ; 
and he was great enough to see that he must hold it 
as an English, not as a foreign, ruler. He did his best 
to live up to this position. The son of a heathen king, 
one, it must be remembered, who had relapsed from 
Christianity into heathenism, he became a Christian, 
and gave no small proofs of the sincerity of his con- 
version. Brought up amongst associations of savagery 
and violence, and inheriting, it may well be believed, 
a fierce and passionate temper, he did his best to con- 
quer himself. That he never wholly succeeded it is 
easy to believe ; the story that has been told of the 
house carl whom he slew in his rage proves as much. 
But self-restraint seems to have been the rule of his 
life. We may not compare him with such a king as 
Alfred. Scruples had little power over him when some 
object of policy was to be attained. The writers who 
speak most highly in his praise, who describe him as 
a wise and mighty ruler, also talk of his craft. His 
standard of kingship was not, perhaps, the highest, but 
he did his best to be true to it. 

Of the man himself we get a few glimpses over and 
above those which the history has given us. One of 
them reminds us of the story which describes him as 
listening with delight to the chanting of the Ely monks. 
He was a "great lover of minstrels," says one of the 
chroniclers, after praising his might and his craft. 
Among the poets that came to his Court was a cer- 
tain Othere the Black, an Icelander, and a kinsman of 
the great Sighvat. The story of his welcome runs 
thus : 

" After evensong the King came into the hall and 



ANECDOTES OF CNUT. 300 

said, ' I see a man here who is not of this country. 
He looks like a poet, and I would sooner have him to 
second me in a wager of battle than any one here.' 
And now Othere entered the hall and addressed the 
King in a verse, 1 and forthwith asked to be allowed to 
recite a poem on the King. Cnut answered, and the 
poem was delivered to a great gathering at the next 
day's mod, and the King praised it, and took a Russian 
cap off his head, broidered with gold and with gold 
knots to it, and bade his chamberlain fill it with silver, 
and give it to the poet. He did so, and reached it over 
men's shoulders, for there was a crowd, and the heaped- 
up silver tumbled out of the hood on the mod-stage 
[the platform for the speakers]. He was going to pick 
it up, but the King told him to let it be. ' The poor 
shall have it, and thou shalt not lose by it ! ' " 

We touch a higher point in the well-known story of 
the King and his courtiers which I shall tell in the 
words of the Chronicler, Henry of Huntingdon, who 
first relates it. The whole passage may be given : 

" Three things did the same King wittily and well. 
Firstly, he gave his daughter to wife to the Emperor 
of Rome with riches beyond all counting. Secondly, 
journeying to Rome, he caused that the mischievous 
exactions, tolls by name, that were levied on the road 
that leads through Gaul to Rome, should be 
diminished to one half, paying, therefor, moneys of 
his own. Thirdly, in the very height of his power, he 
bade set his chair on the shore of the sea, when the 

1 The verse ran thus, " Let us so greet the King of the Danes, Irish, 
English, and Island Dwellers, that his praise may travel wide over all 
lands as far as the pillars of heaven." 



310 CANUTE. 

tide was flowing ; and to the tide, as it flowed, he 
said, ' Thou art my subject ; and the land on which I 
sit is mine ; nor hath there ever been one that resisted 
my bidding, and suffered not. I command thee, there- 
fore, that thou come not up on my land, nor presume 
to wet the garments and limbs of thy lord.' But the 
sea, rising after its wont, wetted without respect the 
feet and legs of the King. Therefore leaping back he 
said, ' Let all dwellers on the earth know that the 
power of kings is a vain and foolish thing, and that 
no one is worthy to bear the name of king, save only 
Him, whose bidding the heavens, and the earth, and 
the sea obey by everlasting laws.' Nor ever thereafter 
did King Canute set his crown of gold upon his head, 
but put it for ever on the image of our Lord, which 
was fastened to the cross." 





XXVIII. 



THE SONS OF CANUTE. 



CANUTE left two sons by his first wife, Elgiva, and 
a son and a daughter by Emma of Normandy. The 
sons of Elgiva, indeed, were commonly said not to be 
the children of Canute. The story was that she never 
bore a child, but that she palmed off on her husband 
two boys whom she had purchased for the purpose. 
The story has an incredible look, and curiously 
resembles the fiction which, for many years, half 
England devoutly believed about the Old Pretender. 1 
Sweyn, the elder of the two sons of Elgiva, had been 
Canute's vicegerent in Norway. His cruelties excited 
a revolt in that country, and he was expelled, together 
with his mother. There seem never to have been 
any question of calling him to the throne of England. 
Harold was in England at the time of the King's 
death. Nothing was said in any will about his rights 
of succession. On the other hand, it had been stipu- 
lated, as has been already said, on the occasion of 

1 Commonly called the "Warming Pan" story. It was declared 
that Mary of Modena, the wife of James II., of England, did not really 
give birth to a child, but that the infant, afterwards the Old Pretender, 
was introduced into the crueen's chamber in a warming-pan. 



312 THE SONS OF CANUTE. 

Canute's second marriage, that the crown was to go to 
a son of Emma. Such a son there was, Hardicanute 
by name, who had been sent by his father to act as 
his viceroy in Denmark. 

The question now arose — who was to succeed 
Canute ? Hardicanute had the better right, but he 
was away, and he showed no desire to return. He 
preferred to remain, for the present at least, in Den- 
mark, which was indeed threatened by the new rulers 
of Norway. 1 Harold, on the other hand, had the 
advantage of being on the spot. A council was held 
soon after Canute's death to determine this matter of 
the succession, and its deliberations showed a great 
difference of opinion. Godwin, the Earl of Wessex, 
supported the claim of Hardicanute. But Wessex 
stood alone ; the rest of England, led by Leofwin of 
Mercia, took up the cause of Harold ; London, where 
a great Danish colony had now been established, was 
strongly in his favour. Finally a compromise was 
agreed upon. Mercia and Northumbria, in other words, 
the Midlands and the North, to which we should pro- 
bably add, the East of England, were to belong to 
Harold ; Hardicanute was to have the South and 
West. Till he should return from Denmark, Emma, 
holding her Court at Winchester, was to act as regent. 
The administration really lay in the hands of Godwin. 

But there were other claimants to the throne of 
whom the assembly at Oxford took no account — 
Emma's two sons by Ethelred — the Athelings, Alfred 
and Edward. They had resided from early childhood 
at the Court of their kinsman, the Duke of Normandy, 

1 The son of St. Olaf had been recalled to the throne. 



CLAIMANTS TO THE THRONE. 313 

and they now made an attempt to recover their in- 
heritance. The history of this attempt is involved 
from beginning to end in much obscurity. The 
Atheling Edward is said to have sailed from Nor- 
mandy with a fleet of forty ships, to have landed near 
Southampton, and to have made his way to his mother 
at Winchester. But neither she nor the people gene- 
rally gave him a welcome. His Norman followers, 
too, began to plunder the country, and excited much 
hatred. Finally matters began to have so threaten- 
ing a look, that Edward retreated to the coast, em- 
barked, and made his way back to Normandy. The 
story may be true ; but if it is, it shows Edward in a 
much more vigorous character than we ever find him 
in again. 

About the adventurer of the other Atheling, Alfred, 
we know more ; but here, also, much is doubtful. The 
young prince certainly landed in England. It is 
equally certain that he was seized, and cruelly put to 
death. He did not come with a large military force ; 
he seems, in fact, to have declined the offer of help 
from Baldwin of Flanders, and to have relied on the 
support that his countrymen would give him as the 
son of their old king, Ethelred. The commonly 
accepted story runs that he landed at Dover ; that at 
Guildford he was met by Godwin, who pretended to 
welcome him, and hospitably entertained him and his 
followers. Then we are told that during the night 
Godwin's men seized and bound the whole party, 
that some were killed, and others sold as slaves ; that 
Alfred himself was sent to King Harold at London ; 
that Harold caused him to be blinded, and sent him 



314 THE SONS OF CANUTE. 

to Ely, where he died, the weapon with which his 
sight had been destroyed having wounded his brain. 
Finally, we are told that Godwin acted in the matter 
as Harold's agent. That many people at the time } 
and afterwards, believed that Godwin had some share 
in the deed is manifest. The earl, indeed, was for- 
mally accused and tried on the charge about four 
years afterwards. But it has been pointed out T that 
Godwin was not a minister of Harold, but the prin- 
cipal counsellor of Hardicanute, or rather of the 
Queen-regent Emma. Further, we have to remember 
that the trial of Godwin, when the case was regularly 
examined, resulted in his acquittal. And, finally, we 
must take into account that, even if the story is true, 
Alfred did but meet the fate which an unsuccessful 
pretender must expect. That death was inflicted in 
a barbarous way is doubtless true ; the agreement 
of testimony on this point is too strong to be set 
aside. But there is no strong evidence to bring home 
this cruelty to Godwin, and we may fairly give credit 
to his own persistent and solemn denials of any guilt 
in the matter. There is no difficulty, on the other 
hand, in crediting King Harold with this or any other 
atrocity. Still it is not unlikely that Godwin had 
some share, not in the Atheling's death, but in his 
arrest. Alfred's attempt had it succeeded, would 
have been as fatal to Hardicanute, Godwin's master, 
fts to Harold ; and the earl would have been failing 
in his duty if he had not done his best to crush it. 
The arrangement by which England was divided 

1 By Professor Freeman, who has examined the question exhaustively 
in his " Norman Conquest." 



HARDICANUTE INVADES ENGLAND. 315 

between the two sons of Canute did not remain long 
in force. Hardicanute still remained in Denmark, 
and the nobles of Wessex, vexed at his refusal to 
return, deposed him, and Harold Harefoot (a name 
given him on account of his speed of foot) became 
king over the whole realm (1037). Queen Emma 
was banished, but Godwin succeeded in gaining the 
new king's favour, and kept his place and power. 
Little is told us of Harold's other doings during his 
short reign. We hear of the Welsh under Griffith 
making a successful inroad into England, and fight- 
ing a battle in which Edwin, brother of the Mercian 
earl, was killed along with other English nobles. 
Duncan of Scotland also invaded the country and 
got as far as Durham. Durham, which we have heard 
of as uninhabited long after the time of St. Cuth- 
bert, had now become a populous and well-fortified 
city, crowned by a splendid minster. The Scottish 
king was defeated with great loss before its walls, and 
was glad to make his escape to his own dominions. 

In 1039 Hardicanute left Denmark, which, now 
that he had concluded a peace with Magnus of 
Sweden, he felt to be safe. He spent the winter 
with his mother, who had found shelter with Baldwin 
of Flanders, and made preparations for an invasion of 
England in the following spring. The invasion, how- 
ever, was never made, for the crown came to him in 
the course of nature. On March 17th, Harold Hare- 
foot died at Oxford after a long illness. He could 
not have been more than twenty-six years of age. Of 
his character we know little, and that little is not in 
his favour. The Chronicles speak of his irreligion, 



THE ENGLISH TAXED. 317 

and of his selling Church preferments for money. We 
have seen that the worst part of the guilt of Alfred's 
cruel death probably rests upon his shoulders. 

Hardicanute was chosen king by an assembly which 
met shortly after Harold's death. At midsummer he 
came over to England, landing at Sandwich, and 
shortly afterwards was crowned at Canterbury. He 
began his reign by a disgraceful act of vengeance. 
The body of Harold was taken out of its tomb at 
Westminster, beheaded, and thrown into the Thames. 
It was recovered from the river by a fisherman, de- 
livered by him to the Danish colony in London, and 
buried again in their cemetery outside the walls. 1 
This must have been an unpopular act, for Harold 
had been the choice of nearly the whole English 
people, and probably had not reigned long enough to 
excite any great discontent. Still more hateful to 
the people must have been the imposition of a heavy 
tax for the payment of the fleet which Hardicanute 
had brought with him. A sum of £22,000 was levied 
in one year, and another of ;£ 11,000 in the next. It 
is interesting to be told that each rower received eight 
marks, and each steersman twelve. 2 The city of 
Worcester refused, we are told, to make this payment, 
and an expedition led by Leofric of Mercia, Siward 

1 The reader must conceive of London as not reaching further west- 
ward at this time than the western end of Fleet Street, the spot so long 
marked by Temple Bar. Outside lay the open space which is now 
called the Strand, or river bank ; and here, in the place where the 
Church of St. Clement Danes still preserves a memory of the fact, 
was the burial place of the colony. 

2 Eight marks = ,£5 6s. 8d. (about #27). The Chronicler says that 
there were sixty-two ships. This, after deducting ^"496 for the steers- 
men, would allow rather more than sixty rowers for each ship. 



3i8 THE SONS OF CANUTE. 

of Northumbria, and other nobles, were made to 
reduce the city to submission. For four days the 
country was ravaged, and on the fifth the city itself 
was burnt. The inhabitants, however, are said to 
have escaped, some by flight, others by defending 
themselves on an island of the Severn. The army 
which Leofric and his companions led against Wor- 
cester was largely composed of the House Carles, and 
we hear many stories of the rapacity and violence of 
this force. Besides their military duties, they seem to 
have been employed as collectors of the Danegelt. 
Tax-gatherers are never welcome visitors, and it may 
easily be believed that soldiers employed in this 
capacity may have made themselves specially odious. 
The only other memorable act of Hardicanute is 
his effort to destroy his powerful subject, Earl Godwin. 
The earl was accused, as has been said, of having 
brought about the death of the Atheling Alfred. He 
was tried by the nobles and Churchmen of England. 
Depositions of his accusers were taken, and he 
affirmed his innocence upon oath, and his judges 
also took their oaths that they believed his affirma- 
tion. The favour of the King himself, who indeed 
owed him much, he seems to have regained by a 
handsome present. This was a splendid ship, which 
is thus described by Florence of Worcester. It had 
a gilded beak, and was equipped in a most perfect 
manner. Eighty warriors manned it, and every one 
of them bore a golden bracelet on each arm of six- 
teen ounces weight, was armed with a strongly woven 
habergeon, and a helmet partly gilt. Each also was 
girded with a gilded sword ; from his left shoulder 



END OF CANUTE'S DYNASTY. 319 

hung a Danish axe, bound with gold and silver ; in 
his left hand was a shield, the boss and the nails of 
which were gilded, and in his right a lance, the 
English name of which was " aetgar." 

Hardicanute appears not to have been married. 
At least we hear nothing of wife or child. It was 
probably with the thought of providing for the suc- 
cession that he invited the Atheling Edward to come 
over from Normandy. Not long after his reign came 
to a sudden end. " This year died Hardicanute," we 
read in one of the Chronicles, " as he stood at his 
drink." He had honoured with his presence the 
marriage of his standard - bearer, a great Danish 
noble, Tofig, surnamed the Proud. The wedding 
feast was held at Lambeth, where Clapa, the father 
of the bride, had his house. " As the king stood in 
good health and joyous, drinking with the aforesaid 
bride and certain men," he fell down in a fit. As 
he is described as having struggled fearfully, the fit 
was probably epileptic. Whatever was its nature, it 
was fatal in the course of a day or two. With Hardi- 
canute the shortlived dynasty of Canute came to an 
end. He was probably in his twenty-third or twenty- 
fourth year. 



XXIX. 

EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 

After what we have heard of the doings of Canute's 
sons, it is not surprising to be told by the Chronicler that 
" all the people chose Edward king in London." They 
were weaned of Danes ; they would have an English 
ruler. But unfortunately — if indeed it turned out to 
be unfortunate — the man whom they chose was not 
an Englishman except in name. That his mother 
was Norman might not have mattered much, for on 
the father's side he came of the stock of Alfred ; and 
Englishmen know by experience how thoroughly 
English kings who are even on both sides of foreign 
descent can become. But all his life had been spent 
in Normandy ; all his tastes had been formed there ; 
he had no thought but to make England as like the 
home of his youth as he could. His coming, therefore, 
was the peaceful beginning of the Conquest which was 
to be completed, or, it would be better, perhaps, to 
say decided, four and twenty years afterwards, on the 
bloody field of Senlac. It was a strange ordering of 
fate that made this island three times the spoil of 
three successive swarms of invaders belonging sub- 
stantially to the same race. Both Saxons and Danes 



EDWARD CROWNED KING. 321 

were rovers of the sea who issued from the harbours 
of Eastern Europe, and the Normans were Norwegians 
who had been settled for some generations in a pro- 
vince which they had won from France. 1 

Edward was in Normandy when the crown thus 
came to him. He was not altogether willing to 
accept it ; but Earl Godwin persuaded him to yield, 
and he came over to England. There was still a 
Danish party in England, and there were some who 
advocated the claims of Sweyn, the cousin of Hardi- 
canute ; but the influence, the eloquence, and, it was 
said, the bribes, of Godwin prevailed, and on Easter 
Day (April 3rd), 1043, Edward was "hallowed king'' 
at Winchester. Ambassadors from France, from 
Germany, and from Norway, were present, bringing 
gifts from their sovereigns ; gifts too were offered by 
the great English nobles, Godwin presenting him, as 
he had presented his predecessor, with a splendidly 
adorned ship. 

The new king was in the prime of his manhood, 2 
"a man," as his biographer describes him, "of very 
comely person ; his stature moderate ; his hair and 

1 During the ninth century, and in the early years of the tenth, pirates 
from Norway had sailed up the Seine and formed settlements at the 
mouth and along the shores of that river. In 912 Rolf the Norseman 
made a treaty with Charles the Simple, by which a region which, to 
speak generally, was the Normandy of later times, was handed over to 
him and his followers. The Northmen then became a settled people, 
far superior in civilization to their kinsmen, whether in Scandinavia or 
in England. This superiority they owed in part to the readiness with 
which they adopted the ways of the Latinized people among whom they 
had found a home. Their romantic adventures, which took them as 
far afield as Constantinople, form the subject of one of the volumes in 
the "Story of the Nations." 

2 He was probably born in 1004. 



322 EDWARD THE CONEESSOR. 

beard of a singular milky whiteness ; his face full ; 
his skin rosy ; his hands long and exceedingly white; 
his fingers long and transparent ; the rest of his body 
without blemish ; a truly kingly man." His temper 
was quick, but commonly under good control ; he 
was gentle, affable, so courteous in manner that his 
refusal of a request was as pleasant as another man's 
granting it. He was devout with something, one 
cannot but believe, of genuine piety in his devotion. 
He wished well to his people ; he was pure in his life. 
But he was weak, indolent, and, as has often been 
said, better fitted to be a monk than a king. As 
Professor Freeman pithily puts it, " So far as a really 
good man can reproduce the character of a thoroughly 
bad one, Edward reproduced the character of his 
father, Ethelred." What such a ruler may do for the 
country over which he is set will depend mainly upon 
the hands into which he falls. Kings mostly fall into 
bad hands ; and Edward was not wholly an exception 
to this rule. Yet he was more fortunate in this 
respect than some have been. Godwin had great 
influence over him during the earlier years of his 
reign, and Harold, Godwin's son, a greater during 
the latter. Both were true English patriots ; but the 
King's personal preferences were always for Norman 
advisers. Normans were promoted to offices in the 
state, and high dignities in the Church ; and the way 
was paved for that forcible usurpation of them which 
was to follow not many years later. 

In the year of his coronation, " fourteen nights 
before St. Andrew's Mass [St. Andrew's Day is Nov. 
30th] the King was so advised that he and Earl 



MAGNUS CLAIMS THE THRONE. 323 

Leofric, and Earl Godwin, and Earl Sivvard, with 
their attendants, rode from Gloucester to Winchester 
un wares upon the lady [Queen Emma], and they 
bereaved her of all the treasures which she owned, 
which were not to be told ; because before she had 
been very hard to the King, her son, inasmuch as she 
had done less for him than he would, both before he 
was King and after." The Queen Dowager's offence 
is not very clear. It is often, indeed, reckoned as an 
offence to be possessed of great treasures of which 
others stand in need. Doubtless Emma of Normandy 
had accumulated great wealth, and was unwilling to 
give up any of it. Possibly she had favoured the 
cause of her second husband's nephew, Sweyn of 
Denmark, whom we have already seen put in com- 
petition for the crown. If so, with her wealth she 
lost all power of becoming dangerous, for she was 
permitted to live quietly at Winchester for the rest of 
her days. 

In the following year (1043) a new danger from the 
North seemed to threaten England. Magnus of Nor- 
way claimed the crown, his, he declared, by virtue of 
an agreement which he had made with Hardicanute, 
that whoever of the two should live longer should 
have the dominions of both. Edward flatly refused 
to acknowledge the claim, and got together a fleet to 
resist any attempt that might be made. Whether 
Magnus meditated any such effort we do not know. 
The Norse Chronicler tells us that he acknowledged 
the justice of Edward's answer ; but it is certain that 
for some time he had enough to do to defend himself. 
Sweyn, aided by Harold Hardrada, of whom we 



324 EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 

shall hear again, 1 attacked him at home, and the 
invasion of England did not take place. 

In January, 1045, one of the objects of Earl 
Godwin's ambition was reached, for the King 
married his daughter Edith. It was the first of 
many promotions in this family, a family whose rise 
and fall make one of the strangest stories in English 
annals. Godwin had six sons, whose names, arranged 
in the probable order of their birth, were Sweyn, 
Harold, Tostig, Gurth, Leofwine, and Wulfnoth. 
Sweyn had received his earldom, which comprised 
the counties of Hereford, Gloucester, Oxford, Berk- 
shire, and Somersetshire, early in Edward's reign. 
Harold was now advanced to the earldom of East 
Anglia. 

Sweyn's was a troubled career, which it may be 
convenient briefly to relate in this place. In 1046, 
on his return from a campaign in Wales, he had 
carried off the Abbess of Leominster. He offered to 
marry her, but the offer was considered as being 
scarcely a less wrong than the original outrage. 
Sweyn resigned his earldom, and crossed the seas to 
find shelter with Baldwin of Flanders. His earldom 
was divided between Harold and his cousin, Beorn, 
nephew of Gytha, Earl Godwin's wife. Beorn already 
ruled the counties of Hertford, Bedford, Huntingdon, 
and Buckingham, which had been assigned to him at 
the same time at which Harold received his earldom. 
Three years afterwards he returned to England, 
presented himself before the King, offered to renew 
his fealty to him, and begged that his earldom might 

1 See p. 356. 



sweyn's crime. 325 

be given back to him. The request might have been 
granted, for Godwin was powerful with the King, and 
seems not to have had many scruples when the inte- 
rests of his own family were concerned, but the two 
earls between whom Sweyn's own dominions had been 
divided strongly opposed the request. It was refused, 
and Sweyn went back to his ships which he had left 
at Bosham (a harbour in West Sussex). What 
followed is somewhat obscure, but the end is only 
too plain. Beorn consented to go with Sweyn to the 
King at Sandwich, probably to propose some com- 
promise on which they had agreed. But it was not 
to Sandwich that they went. Sweyn persuaded his 
cousin to accompany him to his ships at Bosham, 
where his presence, he said, would help to keep his 
men from deserting. When the two reached Bosham 
a proposal was made that Beorn should go on board 
the ships. This he refused to do. Then Sweyn's 
men bound him, put him into a boat, and took him 
to the ships. These carried him to Dartmouth, 
where he was killed by Sweyn's orders. The body 
was put on shore and buried in a church, but imme- 
diately afterwards removed with much pomp to 
Winchester. 

This pomp was a sign of the indignation that 
Sweyn's crime aroused throughout England. The 
King and the army declared the murderer to be 
nitliing, worthless, the most emphatic condemnation 
which could be pronounced on any man. Sweyn's 
own ships, excepting two, deserted him. The criminal 
himself escaped to Baldwin of Flanders. Yet in spite 
of these misdeeds he was reinstated in his honours 



326 EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 

in 105 1, 1 one of the chief English bishops interceding 
in his favour. But he did not long keep the earldom 
that was thus given back to him. The year of his 
return was the year of that temporary overthrow of 
his house which I shall soon have to relate. He was 
again outlawed, and though again restored, when his 
father regained his power, never came back to Eng- 
land. His crime, if overlooked by others, was never 
forgotten by himself. In the hope of ridding himself of 
remorse, he went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, 
and died, as he was on his way back, in an obscure 
spot in Asia Minor. Such was the end of Godwin's 
eldest son. I now go back to the thread of my story. 

The chief events in the narrative of English affairs 
are the request of Sweyn of Denmark for aid against 
Magnus and Harold Hardrada, and the ravages of 
various pirates' expeditions from the North. Sweyn 
was backed in his petition by Earl Godwin, but failed 
both in 1047 an d the following year to obtain it. 
Between the two requests his position had greatly 
changed, for Magnus of Norway was dead, and had 
bequeathed to him the kingdom of Denmark. Peace 
was made on the second occasion with Harold 
Hardrada, Sweyn 's great enemy, now king of Nor- 
way. The general voice of the kingdom seems to 
have approved this policy ; but it is curious to find, 
as we shall, some twenty years later, this same Harold 
making a claim on the crown of England, and in- 
vading the country to establish it. 

The first appearance of the pirates was in 1048, 
when two Danes, Lothan and Girling by name, ap- 

1 See p. 332. 




ANGLO-SAXON DRINKING GLASS, FOUND AT ASHFORD, KENT. 

[From the original in the British Museum.) 



328 EDWARD THE CONEESSOR. 

peared off the south coast of England with five-and- 
twenty ships. They landed at Sandwich, and carried 
off a great booty, and then, sailing westward, harried 
the Isle of Wight. Afterwards we find them ravaging 
the coast of Essex. By this time the King and his 
earls had collected a fleet. But it was too late. The 
pirates sailed away, and reached in safety the harbours 
of Flanders. 

In the following year another Danish fleet, this 
time from the settlements of that race in Ireland, 
appeared off the English coast, and sailed up the 
Bristol Channel. King Griffith of Wales gladly made 
alliance with them, and in their company invaded 
England. In default, it would seem, of any lay 
leader, Ealdred, Bishop of Worcester, hastily raised 
a force from Gloucestershire and Herefordshire. But 
the Herefordshire men were probably in great part 
Welsh in race and sympathy. Anyhow, there were 
traitors in the camp. A message was conveyed to 
Griffith suggesting an attack. Early in the morning 
the Welsh prince and his Danish allies fell upon the 
camp, and the bishop had to fly for his life. 

This seeming revival of Danish piracy did not, 
however, prevent the repeal of a tax of which we 
have already heard several times under its name of 
Danegeld. This repeal took place in 1050. 

The next year a great revolution was effected. 
Earl Godwin was banished from England. Edward's 
sister, Godgiva, or Goda, had taken as her second 
husband, Eustace, Count of Boulogne. This noble- 
man now came on a visit to his brother-in-law. On 
his way back to his own country he passed through 



BANISHMENT OF EARL GODWIN. 329 

the town of Dover. His train had armed themselves 
before entering the town, probably anticipating the 
unfriendly reception which they got. The townsmen 
refused to give them quarters, according to one 
account. According to another, they behaved as 
though they could deal at their pleasure with the 
property of the inhabitants. Whatever the cause, 
a quarrel arose. A Frank wounded a citizen of 
Dover, and was slain by him. A serious conflict 
followed. Many were slain on both sides, and finally 
the Franks were expelled from the town. Eustace 
made his way to Edward, who was at Gloucester, and 
complained of the conduct of the citizens of Dover ; 
and Edward, seemingly without waiting to hear the 
other side, sent an order to Earl Godwin to punish 
the town. Godwin refused to obey, and, in his turn, 
laid before the King the grievances which the English 
people had against the foreigners, who were now 
beginning to hold many high dignities, civil and 
ecclesiastical, throughout the kingdom, and who not 
un frequently behaved with much insolence. The King 
was ill disposed to listen to these complaints. Ac- 
cording to one account, Robert the Norman, Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, was especially active in turning 
him against Godwin. Once more the old charge 
of having brought about the death of the Atheling 
Alfred was brought up against him. Godwin demanded 
an audience for himself and his sons ; he offered to 
clear himself on oath in the matter of Alfred. The 
King refused both requests. Meanwhile a General 
Assembly had been ordered to meet at Gloucester. 
Godwin and his sons came with an armed force to 



330 EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 

support their claims, though they did not actually 
enter the city. The northern earls, on the other hand, 
attended to support the King. Godwin's demand was 
that Count Eustace and other Frenchmen should be 
handed over to him. The demand was of course 
refused. Still peace was preserved, and the assembly 
was adjourned for a month to meet at London. 
Once more Godwin and his sons attended in force, 
this time taking up a position at Southwark. Leofric 
of Mercia and the other northern earls were also 
present. But Godwin's men began to leave him. 
He was summoned to appear before the assembly. 
His demand for hostages who were to ensure his 
safety was refused, and he and his sons were ordered 
to leave the kingdom within five days. He hastened 
with his wife and his sons, Sweyn, Tostig, and Gurth, 
to his estates in Sussex, and from thence embarked 
with all the treasure that he could collect, and sought 
refuge in Flanders. Harold and another brother fled 
to Ireland. So complete was the downfall of the 
house of Godwin that Edward sent away his own 
wife, who was committed to the charge of the Abbess 
of Wherwell. The Norman party hastened to secure 
the spoil. A Saxon bishop was expelled from the 
see of London to make room for a Norman. Another 
Norman, Oddo by name, had the earldom of the 
western counties, the region that had been West 
Wales in the past, bestowed on him. Harold's 
earldom of East Anglia was given to the son of one 
of the King's chief supporters, Leofric of Mercia. 



XXX. 

THE SUPREMACY OF HAROLD. 

The banishment of Godwin and his family did not 
last very long. A great part of England, and that 
part the richest and most civilized, was strongly in 
favour of them. It was only by the help of the 
northern earls that the King had prevailed over them; 
and the northern earls could not always be at hand 
to support him against the people in the midst of 
whom he dwelt. Godwin petitioned to be allowed 
to return ; Baldwin of Flanders and the King of 
France sent embassies on his behalf. Edward would 
not listen to them. He had his favourite Normans 
round him, and he knew that if Godwin returned he 
should have to part with many of them. Then 
Godwin tried force. Harold and Leofwine his brother 
sailed from Ireland, and landed in Somersetshire. A 
hasty levy of the country people was raised to meet 
them. Harold was victorious in the battle that fol- 
lowed, and as many as thirty thanes on the beaten 
side were slain. It was an unlucky affair, and could 
not have helped the cause of the Godwin family. 
Probably Harold had landed to collect provisions, 
and was compelled to fight in self-defence. Mean- 
while Godwin had been trying the temper of the 



332 THE SUPREMACY OF HAROLD. 

people in South-eastern England, and had found 
it to be strongly in his favour. He then sailed west- 
ward to the Isle of Wight, where he was joined by 
Harold and Leofwine. They then turned eastward 
again with their united fleets, and sailed along the 
coast, enlisting followers as they went, and seizing 
the ships that they found in the Kentish harbours. 
Their next proceeding was to sail up the Thames 
as far as London. There he occupied the southern 
bank of the river, the northern being held by the 
King's fleet of fifty ships, and by a land army, 
numerous indeed, but not over zealous for its side. 
Godwin was naturally anxious to avoid bloodshed. 
There had already been enough of that in Somerset- 
shire. He sent a message to the King again asking 
for the restoration of the honours and possessions of 
his family. Again the King refused ; but in London 
he had about him other men besides his Norman 
favourites, men who could read the signs of the times. 
Stigand, the mass priest, whom Canute had settled at 
Assandune, 1 and who was now Bishop of Winchester, 
was one of them. By their advice negotiations were 
opened, and hostages, the usual pledge of good faith 
in those days of violence, were given on both sides. 
The Normans saw that their cause was lost and has- 
tened to escape. Robert, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
William, Bishop of London, and others, cut their way 
through the crowd, fled to Walton-on-the-Naze (the 
shorter route through Kent was closed against them), 
and there " lighted on a crazy ship, and betook them- 
selves at once over the sea." 

1 See p. 298. 




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334 



THE SUPREMACY OF HAROLD. 



There was now nothing to hinder Godwin's re- 
storation. At a great assembly, held in London, he 
declared on oath his innocence of all the charges 
which had been brought against him. Then he was 
formally restored, and his earldom was given back to 
him, as was Harold's to him. The Queen was brought 
back from the nunnery to which she had been sent, 
and the King "gave her all that she before owned. ; ' 
" Archbishop Robert was without reserve declared an 
outlaw, and all the Frenchmen, because they had 
chiefly made discord between Earl Godwin and the 
King." Stigand, of Winchester, was promoted to the 
archbishopric, an irregular proceeding which we 
shall find afterwards to have been the cause of much 
trouble. 

The great earl did not live long after his restoration. 
On the Monday in Easter week (April 12th) in the 
following year (1053) he was seized with sudden 
sickness as he sat at the King's table, and died on the 
Thursday following. It was a paralytic stroke, for, 
as the Chronicler describes the event, "he suddenly 
sank down by the King's footstool, deprived of all 
speech and power." Writers who favoured the cause 
of the Normans did not of course pass by this 
opportunity of maligning the great English cham- 
pion. The story which they told of his death was 
this. The King's cupbearer, as he was offering the 
wine, slipped with one foot and recovered himself 
with the other. " Thus brother helps brother," cried 
Godwin. " Yes," cried the King, " and if you had not 
slain my brother Alfred, so would he have helped 
me." Then Godwin swore that he was innocent of 



DEATH OF GODWIN. 335 

the Atheling's death. " If I had aught to do with it," 
he affirmed, " may this morsel of bread choke me." 
Thereupon the King blessed the bread, and Godwin 
was choked in attempting to swallow it. We may 
safely pronounce all this to be fiction. 1 Godwin was 
then more than sixty years old. He had had a 
stormy life, and nothing is more likely than that it 
should be brought to a sudden end by a stroke of this 
kind. 

Harold succeeded his father in the Earldom of 
Wessex. His own earldom was bestowed on yElfgar, 
son of Leofric. Not long after the family power was 
increased by the promotion of Tostig, the next 
brother, to the Earldom of Northumbria, vacant by 
the death of Siward the Strong. 

Siward, not long before, had penetrated into Scot- 
land, as far as Aberdeenshire and had there won a 
great victory over a combined force of Scots and 
Normans, under the Macbeth to whom Shakespeare 
has given so sinister a fame. The victory had cost 
him his son, Osbern, and his nephew and namesake, 
Siward the Younger. He received the tidings of his 
son's death with characteristic firmness. " Where is 
his death-wound ? " he asked ; when he heard that it 
was in front, he said, " I rejoice ; no other death is 
worthy of my son or me." It was not, however, his 
own lot thus to pass away. A mortal sickness came 
upon him, and it seemed likely that he must die in his 
bed. This, at least, he could avoid. "I feel shame,'' 
he cried, " not to have fallen in one of the many 

1 Professor Freeman gives an interesting study of the growth of the 
legend (" History of the Norman Conquest," ii. 635-640), 



336 THE SUPREMACY OF HAROLD. 

battles that I have fought, and to have been preserved 
to die like a cow. Close me in my mail of proof, gird 
my sword on me, fit the helmet on my head, and put 
a shield in my left hand, and a gilded axe in my 
right, that I may die like a soldier." 

Before Siward's death there had passed away 
another Englishman, not notable in himself, but who, 
had he lived, might have altered the course of English 
affairs. This was the Atheling Edward, son of 
Edmund Ironsides. He had lived in Hungary since 
the accession of Canute, and had married a niece of 
the Emperor Henry III. 1 He had come over with 
his wife and children. The hope that a successor to 
the throne might be found in this descendant of 
Alfred was disappointed, for Edward died suddenly 
in London. This was in 1057. The event cleared 
Harold's way to the crown ; but no one has ven- 
tured to charge him with having had a hand in it. 
It was not the less a disaster to England, if indeed we 
ought to so describe one of the causes that led to the 
Norman Conquest. 

In the following year (1058) Harold visited Rome, 
and obtained from Benedict the pall for Archbishop 
Stigand. Unfortunately, Benedict himself was an 
usurper, and was shortly afterwards expelled from the 
Chair of St. Peter's, so that Stigand's position was 
not permanently improved. 

Several years may be now passed over, till we 
come to Harold's campaign against the Welsh in 
1063. It will be convenient to give in this place a 
brief account of the relations between the Welsh and 

1 See p. 296. 



THE WELSH BURN HEREFORD. 337 

their English neighbours during the thirteen years 
preceding the settlement that vv .s now to be effected. 
In 1050 Griffith, King of North Wales, in conjunction 
with some marauders from Ireland, had crossed the 
Wye and defeated a force which Bishop Ealdred of 
Worcester had collected to meet them. In the year 
of Godwin's banishment Griffith had renewed his 
ravages, and had defeated with great loss a Norman 
force which issued from the Castle of Leominster to 
attack him. Three years afterwards he found an ally 
in /Elfgar, son of Leofric, of Mercia, who had been 
outlawed, and had raised a piratical force in Ireland. 
The two invaded Herefordshire, and were met by 
Radulf, the Norman earl of the West country. 
Radulf mounted his English troops on horseback. 
This was a kind of fighting to which they were not 
accustomed, and their lines were speedily broken. 
Whether they carried away their Norman and French 
comrades in their flight, or whether the latter were the 
first to leave their ground, we cannot say. Anyhow, 
the English army fled almost without striking a blow. 
Griffith and ^Elfgar now entered Hereford and burnt 
both the city and the cathedral. They then returned 
to Wales with a great quantity of booty and long 
trains of prisoners. Harold meanwhile had collected 
an army and followed the enemy into their own 
country. Griffith retired into South Wales. 

The year following, though he had lost ^Elfgar, who 
had meanwhile been restored to his earldom, he again 
invaded England, and was again successful. This 
time he met and vanquished Leofgar, the newly- 
appointed Bishop of Hereford, who had put himself 



33$ THE SUPREMACY OF HAROLD. 

at the head of the English forces. The end of this 
campaign was a peace, Griffith swearing to yield 
henceforth a peaceful homage to King Edward. 

The peace was soon broken. In 1058 ^Elfgar was 
again banished, again allied himself to Griffith (who 
seems to have married his daughter), and again 
recovered his earldom by his help. 

In 1063 Harold resolved to put an end to these 
troublesome incursions. To do this he felt that he must 
carry the war into the enemy's country. He equipped 
his men in a way that would make them a better match 
in speed and agility for the nimble mountaineers. They 
carried light spears ; their helmets and corslets were 
of leather. Thus armed, they pursued the Welsh into 
the defiles and hollows of Snowdon. Harold made 
his way through Wales to Bristol, where he took ship 
and sailed round the coast, Earl Tostig meanwhile 
ravaging the country with his cavalry. The Welsh 
were thoroughly cowed. Griffith escaped for the time, 
but the next year was murdered by his subjects, who 
sent his head and the beak of his ship to the English 
king. His half-brothers were appointed sub-kings of 
Wales in his place. 

It is probably to the year after the death of Griffith, 
i.e., to 1064, that we must assign a strange incident, 
itself, it would seem, the result of the merest chance, 
if there be such a thing as chance, which had yet a 
strong influence on the after- fortunes of Harold and of 
England. Of this incident more than one version is 
given ; indeed, it is assigned to more than one time. 
I feel safe in following the preference which Professor 
Freeman has given to the story that follows. 



Si 







340 THE SUPREMACY OF HAROLD, 

Harold, then, it sec-is, sometime in the latter part 
of this year, set out ^>n what we should call a yacht- 
ing trip in the English Channel. He had three ships 
with him, and carried dogs and hawks for purposes 
of sport. Bad weather drove him to the coast of 
Ponthieu, and on that coast he seems to have been 
wrecked. A fisherman, who happened to know him 
by sight, hastened to Count Guy, and offered for 
twenty pounds to show him a prisoner who would be 
willing to pay a hundred pounds for his ransom. 
The Count rode to the coast, ordered Harold to be 
seized, and carried him to one of his inland fortresses. 
But one of his attendants contrived to escape, and 
making his way to Count William of Normandy at 
his palace in Rouen, told him how Count Guy had 
inhospitably seized his master. William, we may be 
sure, was not sorry to hear of what had happened, and 
had no doubt what was to be done at once, whatever 
might follow afterwards. A messenger was despatched 
in hot haste to Guy, to demand, with threats, if 
necessary, the liberation of this prisoner. This was 
a request to which Guy, inspired, as were the rest of 
William's neighbours, with no little awe of his power, 
at once yielded. He took his prisoner out of his 
dungeon, and rode with him to En, where he met 
the Duke. His prompt obedience was handsomely 
rewarded. As for Harold, he soon found that he had 
to pay a price for his liberty much heavier than any 
ransom which Count Guy could have thought of 
extorting. 

For a time the Duke seemed to think of nothing 
but doing his guest all the honours that he could think 



HAROLD FALLS INTO WILLIAM'S HANDS. 341 

of. Tournaments were held to amuse him. He 
lived on the most friendly terms with the Duke's 
family. It is even said that he was engaged to marry 
one of the Duke's daughters, then, it is true, young 
children, and that he promised to give his sister 
Elgiva in marriage to a Norman noble. He received 
knighthood at the hands of his host, and accompanied 
him on an expedition against the men of Brittany. 
It was on his return from this war that the English- 
man found that he had to pay the price for all these 
pleasures. Something more than his own marriage 
to a Norman princess, or the giving of his sister to a 
Norman, was asked of him. He was to become 
" Duke William's man," to acknowledge him as 
Edward's heir in the kingdom of England, and to 
look after his interests as long as Edward lived. 
Other things, too, that have a quite impossible look, 
such as the immediate surrender of Dover Castle, are 
said to have been demanded. 

Harold had no choice but to yield. He was 
virtually a prisoner, however comfortable his prison, 
and there were no means of escape. Accordingly he 
made the promises demanded, and confirmed them 
with an oath. And here comes in the strangest part 
of this strange story. A common oath would not be 
enough. Some unusual sanction must be added 
which would make perjury too dreadful a crime to be 
thought of. This addition William cunningly con- 
trived to make without Harold's knowledge. The 
Englishman swore, as he thought, a simple oath on the 
Gospels. But the Gospels rested on a chest which 
had been filled with the relics of saints, the holiest 



342 THE c UPREMACY OF HAROLD. 

that the Duke c-ould find in all the land of Normandy. 
It is said that Harold turned pale and trembled when 
he saw what he had unknowingly done. 

This is the story. All its details are uncertain ; 
some of them may very likely be untrue. But we 
may be sure that there is some foundation for it, and 
that this voyage of Harold, with all its consequences, 
was one of the most disastrous incidents of his life. 
It gave Duke William another claim, and one of which 
we in these days can scarcely comprehend the force, 
to succeed to the English crown. 

And now there happened another disaster, which 
was to have its share in working out the tragedy of 
Harold's life. It was a disaster to which various 
causes had been leading up for several years, and which 
had now come to its fulfilment. 

It will be remembered that Tostig had been 
appointed to succeed Siward in the Earldom of 
Northumbria, Waltheof, Siward's surviving son, being 
put aside as too young for the post. It was an un- 
fortunate appointment, perhaps forced upon Harold, 
who could hardly pass over his brother, but possibly 
a part of the policy of family aggrandisement which 
Godwin had carried out with so little scruple. Or, 
again, it may have been due to the partiality of the 
King, who is known to have had a great liking for the 
young earl. It was a dangerous experiment to put 
a pure bred Englishman from the South to administer 
the affairs of a half-Danish earldom, and a wiser man 
than Tostig might easily have failed in the task. 
Unfortunately Tostig was not wise. He may have 
meant to govern well, but he did not go the right way 



BANISHMENT OF TOS^IG. 343 

to work. He was impatient of oppos>ton, wanting 
in sympathy, and ready to use violence w. a .n his will 
was thwarted. And his favour at Court took him 
away from his duties. When at home he \/as harsh 
and exacting, and when absent he left his territories 
to take care of themselves. 1 

The crisis came in 1065, when two Northumbrian 
nobles were murdered by Tostig's orders, one of them 
at the royal court (of his death Queen Edgiva is said 
to have been guilty), the other in his own chamber at 
York. The NorthumbrKiis rose against the earl, 
slaughtered a number of his house carles and retainers, 
deposed him, and chose Morcar, son of ^Elfgar, to be 
earl in his stead. Harold had a meeting with the 
insurgents at Oxford. He heard their complaints, 
was satisfied, it would seem, of their justice, and 
undertook to support them before the King. Edward 
was at first eager to restore his favourite by force of 
arms. But his counsellors were against him, and at 
last he yielded to their advice. Tostig was formally 
deprived of his earldom and banished. He fled to 
Baldwin, Count of Flanders, and forthwith began to 
form plans for revenge. We cannot doubt that 
Harold had done his duty to his fellow countrymen 
and his king ; but he had made an enemy, and an 
enemy, as we shall see, of the most dangerous kind. 

1 They were invaded by Malcolm of Scotland on two occasions (1059, 
1061). 



XXXI. 

WILLIAM OF NORMANDY. 

I HAVE had occasion, more than once, to speak of 
William of Normandy. It now becomes necessary 
to say something about him, to state briefly who he 
was and what was his position. To estimate his 
character as a ruler, and to describe what harm, what 
good he did to this country does not fall within my 
province as the writer of the " Story of Early Eng- 
land." 

William was born in the year 1028. His father 
was Robert, then Count of the Hiesmois, but very 
shortly to become, by the death of Richard the Good, 
Duke of Normandy. His mother was a certain 
Arietta or Herleva, daughter of Fulbert, the tanner 
of Falaise. Marriage there could not be between the 
Duke of Normandy and the daughter of a mechanic, 
but Robert was faithful to the woman whom he had 
loved as long as he lived. After his death Herleva 
married a Norman gentleman of good repute. The 
child, even before his birth, was marked out, it was 
said, by his mother's dreams, for future greatness. 
As soon as he saw the light, he gave a proof of his 
vigour, seizing the straw with which, it is interesting 



THE NORMAN SUCCESSION. 345 

to find, the ducal chamber was carpeted, with a sturdy 
grasp. Duke Robert lost no time in securing for the 
child the succession to his crown Kinsmen he had ; 
but there were objections to all of them. The nearest 
heir was his uncle, Robert, Archbishop of Rouen ; 
but then a Churchman could hardly succeed to the 
dukedom. Others were related only on the mother's 
side. Others, again, was of doubtful birth, scarcely 
more entitled to be called legitimate than the infant 
William himself. Such were the circumstances of the 
case, and they made Duke Robert's scheme, unlikely 
as it seemed, possible of achievement. He seems to 
have worked at it for several years doing what he 
could to win over his nobles to accept it. At length, 
when the boy was six or seven years old, he announced 
it to an assembly of notables. He was himself going, 
he said, on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, a perilous 
journey, from which it was probable that he might 
never return. It was necessary, before he started, to 
settle the question of his succession. To the sensible 
advice of his subjects that he should stop at home, 
and do his duty in governing his dukedom, he re- 
turned a resolute refusal. Then he produced the 
boy, one of their own stock, he said, who would soon 
mend, if God pleased, of the fault of youth. 1 The 
Norman nobles were in a strait. They could not keep 
the duke at home if he was minded to go, and it was 
perfectly true that the succession must be settled 
before he started. Then there was no other candi- 

1 " II est peti, mais il creistra, 
E, se Deu plaist, amendera," 
are the words which the story-teller puts into his mouth. 



346 WILLIAM OF NORMANDY. 

date upon whom they could agree. Under these 
circumstances they took what was the easiest and 
pleasantest course, and accepted the boy William as 
the heir of the dukedom. He was taken to Paris, 
and there swore fealty to the King. Duke Robert 
set out on his pilgrimage, reached Jerusalem, and 
died on his return at Nicsea. 1 

In 1035, then, William, then seven years old, suc- 
ceeded to the rule of about as turbulent a people as 
was to be found in the world. He had guardians 
and counsellors, among whom were some of his kins- 
men, and, it may be said, of the claimants to his 
throne. The chief was Alan of Brittany ; others 
were his cousins, Osbern and Gilbert. This guardian- 
ship was no enviable post. Alan was poisoned 
while he was besieging a rebel castle ; Gilbert was 
murdered by assassins hired by a relative of his own ; 
and Osbern was killed in William's own chamber. 
This time it was the duke himself whose life was 
sought, and Osbern was killed in defending him. 

There is no need to follow in detail the events of 
the following years. Enough has been said to show 
what kind of education it was that the young William 
received, how very hard was the school of life in 
which he was brought up, what a wonderful training 
in courage, readiness, promptitude of resource it must 
have given to any pupil who was hardy enough to 
survive it. William did survive it, and it fitted him 
for the part which he had afterwards to play. 

He was just twenty years old when he ran his 

1 Nicaea, now Isnik, in Bithynia, famous as the place where the first 
General Council was held (318 B.C.). 



WILLIAM DEFEATS THE REBEL NORMANS. 347 

greatest risk of losing both life and throne. All 
the Norman nobles, it may be said, conspired to over- 
throw him, not with the notion of setting up any 
other duke in his place, but in the hope of setting up 
each a little sovereignty of his own, where he might 
oppress his weak neighbours to his heart's content. 
The first thing to be done was, if possible, to seize 
William himself. He happened to be on a hunting 
expedition at Valognes, a little town in the peninsula 
now called La Manthe, and therefore far away from 
his home. One night he was roused from his sleep 
with the warning that he must rise at once, and fly 
for his life. The duke threw himself on his horse 
and rode all that night. In the morning he reached 
the house of a faithful vassal, who gave him a fresh 
horse and the escort of his own sons. Thus he 
reached Falaise in safety. 

Though the common people were favourable to the 
duke, as indeed they might well be with the prospect 
of a number of petty tyrants before them, he was 
obliged to look abroad for help, and he looked to his 
liege lord, Henry of France. The King at once granted 
his petition for help, and marched with his army to join 
the loyal Normans. It was at Val-es-Dunes, near 
Caen, that the opposing forces met. It was William's 
first battle, and he bore himself in it with all the 
courage that distinguished him through life ; nor did 
he fail to show that great physical strength which we 
shall see displayed hereafter in a greater fight. The 
King too, on his part, did his duty as a warrior, though 
he was twice unhorsed. After a fierce resistance 
the rebels were overthrown. Their loss on the field 



348 WILLIAM OF NORMANDY. 

of battle was great, and their loss in the flight still 
greater. William was now undisputed master of 
Normandy. One of his first acts was to require from 
his turbulent nobles the destruction of the castles 
which they had built during the period of anarchy, 
and which were the signs of the lawless independence 
that they so coveted. 

Master of his own inheritance, William now began 
to turn his thoughts to a richer possession which he 
began to hope might be his. The crown of England 
was not without heir ; but there was no heir present 
before the eyes of men. The last direct male descen- 
dant of Alfred 1 was living in a distant country. If 
there were other claimants they had no great thought 
either of legal right or of popular favour to urge on 
their own behalf. If the house of Godwin thought of 
the succession as a thing that might come to them, 
why might he not so think of it ? 

It was therefore appropriately enough during the 
exile of Godwin and his sons (1051-1052), that 
William paid a visit to the English king. What 
passed between the two on that occasion can never 
be known. But there is a general consent that some 
sort of promise was made by Edward that William 
should have the succession to his kingdom. 

But it was necessary, or at least expedient, to have 
some kind of personal right. This was a difficult, it 
may be said, an impossible, thing to acquire. Still 
some kind of pretence might be invented. A claim 
on the score of birth was impossible. Even had 
William been the legitimate child of his father, there 

1 The Atheling Edward, son of Edmund Ironsides. 



MATILDA OF FLANDERS. 349 

was no blood relationship between Duke Robert and 
the royal house of England. But what could not come 
by birth might be obtained by marriage. And it 
seems very likely that William did think of this 
possibility in choosing the lady whom he would seek 
in marriage. 

We have heard more than once of Baldwin of 
Flanders as a prince, with whom unsuccessful pre- 
tenders found it convenient to take refuge. It was 
Baldwin's daughter Matilda whom William deter- 
mined to make his wife. 

The lady had, it seems, been married before, and 
had borne two children to her former husband. But 
she was exceedingly beautiful, if her traditionary 
portrait and the glowing language of contemporaries 
can be trusted. And she had the advantage of being 
descended from Alfred through his daughter, the 
wife of Baldwin II. of Flanders. 

The difficulties that William had to overcome in 
prosecuting his courtship were great There was, it 
would seem, aversion on the part of the lady, aversion 
which, according to one account, the suitor over- 
came by the strange method of making his way into 
her father's palace, seizing her by the hair as she sat 
in her mother's chamber, and, after repeated blows, 
throwing her on the ground. " He must be a man of 
great courage,'' Matilda is reported to have said, 
" who could dare to beat me in my own father's 
palace," when she was asked why she had afterwards 
consented to a suit which she had at first scornfully 
refused. 

Another difficulty was of a legal kind. What it 



350 WILLIAM OF NORMANDY. 

was we cannot pretend to say with any certainty. It 
is impossible to believe that Matilda's first husband 
was still alive. On the other hand, it seems equally 
impossible to make out clearly any relationship 
between the two lovers that would have brought 
their marriage within the prohibited degrees. But, 
whatever the difficulties were, they were serious 
enough to delay the marriage for nearly four years. 
The courtship began in 1048, but the marriage did 
not take place till 105 1. It was expressly forbidden 
at the time when it was first proposed by the Council 
of Rheims. Even when it was actually celebrated it 
was held to be irregular by the authorities of the 
Church ; and it was not till six or seven years after- 
wards that Pope Nicholas II. yielded, not without 
reluctance, to the petition of William's chosen advo- 
cate, Lanfranc, 1 and granted the dispensation which 
was to take away from it all defect. 

Such, then, was Harold's great rival. His claims 
or hopes were Edward's promise, Harold's own oath, 
and the relationship of his wife to the royal house. 
His chief support lay in the Norman influence which 
the King during all his reign had so busily promoted. 

1 Afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. 



XXXII. 

THE ACCESSION OF HAROLD AND THE CAMPAIGN 
IN THE NORTH. 



Edward the Confessor was now drawing near 
to his end. The vexation which he felt at the 
banishment of Tostig is said to have aggravated his 
sickness ; but whatever the cause, it was now evident 
that he had not long to live. On Christmas Day he 
appeared in public, wearing his crown, according to 
custom, but in the evening his strength gave way- 
Still he rallied, and appeared, more than once, at the 
banquets with which the Christmas festival was held. 
On Innocents' Day (Wednesday, December 28, 
1065) the great church which he had been building 
for many years, and on which he had spent, it was 
said, the tenth part of the wealth of the kingdom, 
was consecrated. The King was too weak to attend 
the ceremony ; when he heard that it was complete, 
he laid his head upon his pillow. Nor did he ever 
rise again from his bed. He grew weaker and 
weaker till, on the Tuesday in the following week 
(January 5, 1066), his speech failed him. Two 
days after came that common lighting up before 




SEAL OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 

(From the original in the British Museum. ) 



PROPHECY OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 353 

death which is so common an experience. The King- 
awoke from his sleep and spoke. There were present, 
Earl Harold, Archbishop Stigand, the Queen, who 
sat at the foot of the bed, warming her husband's 
feet in her bosom, and Robert, keeper of the palace. 
The dying man's words were at first words of warn- 
ing, and he uttered them with such a fluency that, as 
his biographer says, a man in the strongest health 
could not have exceeded him. The warning was one 
of evil days to come upon the land which should 
not cease till a day in which " a green tree should be 
cut away from its trunk, and be carried away for the 
space of three acres from its root, and shall give itself 
to its trunk without the help of man." l 

His warning or prophecy finished, he gave orders 
for his burial, asked for the prayers of the survivors 
for his soul, and specially thanked his wife for her 
loving care of him. Then the great question was put 

1 The prophecy was commonly interpreted to mean the succession of 
the race of Matilda of Scotland, granddaughter of Edmund Ironsides, 
in the person of Henry II. The " three acres " would be the reigns of 
Harold, William I., and William II. The tree would be joined by the 
marriage of Henry I. with Margaret, and would bear leaves in the 
children of that marriage. " The three acres " receive a most interest- 
ing explanation from Mr. Seebohm ("The English Village Com- 
munity," p. 99) : " It may be that the delirious King, 'as he sat up in 
bed,' dreamingly gazed through the window of his chamber upon the 
open fields and the turf balks dividing the acres. The green tree may 
have been suggested to his mind by an actual tree growing out of one of 
the balks. The uneven glass of his window-panes would be just as likely 
as not, as he rose in his bed, to sever the stem from the root to his eye, 
moving it apparently three acres' breadth higher up the open field, 
restoring it again to its root, as he sank back on his pillow." Thus 
the difficulty which former writers have felt of taking "three acres, 
tria jugera" as a measure of length is avoided. The acres are regular 
strips of land in the common or field. 



354 THE ACCESSION OF HAROLD. 

to him, To whom did he leave his kingdom ? His 
answer was, "stretching out his hand to his aforesaid 
brother Harold, ' I commend her [the Queen] with the 
whole realm to thy protection.' ' After a few more 
words, among them being the strict injunction that 
his death should not be concealed from the people 
(lest he should lose the benefit of their immediate 
prayers), he received the communion, and so passed 
away. 

The King's death had been so confidently expected, 
and the situation was one of such urgency, that the 
Great Assembly of the kingdom was actually sitting 
on this same fifth day of January. There seems to 
have been little hesitation in their action. William 
of Malmesbury indeed writes, " England was doubt- 
fully inclined, not knowing to what ruler she should 
commit herself, whether to Harold, or William, or 
Edgar." But he continues, "all openly blessed 
Harold." And it was on Harold that their choice 
fell. His brothers, Gurth and Leofwine, were 
selected to be the bearers of the offer of the crown. 
It was an offer which he could not accept without 
misgivings, foremost among them being his oath to 
William — but which he could not refuse. 

The next day, the feast of the Epiphany (January 
6th), came the two ceremonies of the burial of 
Edward and the coronation of Harold. Archbishop 
Stigand had no part in either of them. Who officiated 
when the corpse of the Confessor was laid in the 
grave matters little, but it is important to note that it 
was Ealdred, the Northumbrian Primate, who put the 
crown on Harold's head. He asked in a loud voice 



HAROLD IS CROWNED KING. 355 

of the English people whether they chose Earl 
Harold for their king. A great shout of assent was 
the answer. Then Harold swore that he would ob- 
serve the laws of the kingdom. Then, with solemn 
prayers, came the ceremonies of the anointing, the 
placing of the sword in the hand, the putting of 
the crown upon the head, and then the presentation 
of the sceptre and the rod with the Holy Dove. 
Thus, with all the ancient solemnities, Harold was 
made King of England. 

There were two men to whom this event was most 
unwelcome. One was William of Normandy ; the 
other Harold's brother Tostig, the banished Earl of 
Northumbria. Of the former I shall speak hereafter. 
But the story of Tostig may as well be finished now. 
It is possible that he had expected to be restored, but 
it could hardly have been through any help of 
Harold. Without Harold's interference, he felt, his 
banishment would never have been decreed. Now 
that this enemy, as he had doubtless learnt to think 
of his brother, was on the throne, all hopes of a 
peaceable return must be given up. He lost little 
time in setting to work. The Chronicle speaks of a 
great comet which was seen on April 24th, and for 
six nights after. 1 It goes on : " Shortly after Earl 
Tostig came from beyond sea into Wight, with as 
large a fleet as he could get." It says nothing of how 
he got this fleet together, or of who helped him. 
There is some reason for thinking that it was William 
of Normandy. " He did harm by the sea coast 
wherever he went," and so came to Sandwich. But 

1 Another form gives April iS.h. 



356 THE ACCESSION OF HAROLD. 

Sandwich was not a safe place for him, as the pre- 
parations which Harold had been making against 
William could easily be turned against him. Ac- 
cordingly he sailed northwards, entered the Humber, 
and ravaged its southern or Lincolnshire shore. Earls 
Edwin and Morcar collected their levies, attacked 
him and drove him away. Then his movements 
become somewhat obscure. According to one ac- 
count, " he went to Scotland, and the king of Scot- 
land gave him an asylum, and aided him with 
provisions, and he abode there all the summer." 
And then in September we find him joined with 
Harold Hardrada of Norway. The long stay in 
Scotland seems improbable. He must have soon 
begun to look for a more powerful ally than he had 
yet found, and to have seen one in the house of a 
king whom he must have visited hardly later than 
midsummer, if we are to allow anything like sufficient 
time for the vast preparations of which we afterwards 
hear. It is possible indeed that the Norwegian king 
had already made or at least begun these preparations, 
and that Tostig's arrival only served to support im- 
mediate action, and perhaps the way in which that 
action should be taken. 

Harold Hardrada was a notable man. He was the 
half-brother of Olaf the Saint, and we hear of him 
fighting by his side in the fatal field of Vaerdalen. 
From that time there was no more famous champion. 
His huge stature, his dauntless courage, his singular 
skill in arms, combined to make him the first of the 
Northmen of his day. When the triumph of the foes 
of his family drove him from home he went eastward 



BATTLE OF FULFORD. 357 

and served in the bodyguard of the Emperor of 
Constantinople. Then he came back and reigned in 
Norway together with his nephew, Magnus the Good. 
His nephew's death left him sole ruler of his king- 
dom, and now he planned what should be the greatest 
achievement of his life, to do what Canute had done 
before him, and make himself King of England. 

Leaving alone the difficulties that surround the 
earlier part of the story, I shall pass on to tell how 
the expedition fared. Early in September it reached 
Scarborough. After a sharp conflict with the in- 
habitants, the town was taken and burnt. Still 
sailing southward, and ravaging the coast as they 
went, they came to the mouth of the Humber. They 
sailed up this estuary, and then again up the Ouse, 
till they reached a spot, now known as Riccall. 1 a 
few miles from Selby. Here the ships were left 
under a strong guard, while the King and Tostig 
marched against York. Meanwhile the northern 
earls had been raising their levies, and they now ad- 
vanced to attack the invaders. The armies met at a 
place called Fulford, then about two miles from York, 
but now partly included in that city. The battle 
was fiercely contested. At first it went in favour of 
the English, whose left wing broke through the Nor- 
wegian right. Then Harold the King charged in 
person, and carried all before him. The English fled 
before him, leaving many dead on the field, among 
whom was a notable number of ecclesiastics, and 
losing still more in the flight. 

1 The entrenchments made by the Northmen are still to be seen in 
the neighbourhood of this village. 



35& THE ACCESSION OF HAROLD. 

The battle of Fulford was fought on September 
20th. On the 24th York surrendered. But Harold 
did not remain in that city. He removed his quarters 
nine miles north-east to Stamford Bridge, and then 
awaited the arrival of the hostages who were to assure 
him of the fidelity of the county. For Yorkshire had 
promised by its representatives assembled in its chief 
city that it would obey Harold as King of England, 
and would help him to subdue the rest of the land. 

Meanwhile the English Harold was hastening 
northwards. He had been watching, as will be told 
hereafter, the southern coast, to guard against the in- 
vasion of William ; but here was a pressing call for 
help which could not be neglected. As he went, the 
men of the shires through which he passed joined 
him ; on the day of the surrender of York he reached 
Todcaster, a spot about as far from that city on the 
south-east as Stamford Bridge is on the north-east. 
The next morning he entered York, and was received 
with enthusiasm. But he did not stay to rest. He 
marched out at once to do battle with the invaders. 

According to all accounts he surprised them. The 
Norse saga describes how Harold Hardrada and his 
allies were riding into York to make arrangements for 
the business of government when they came suddenly 
on the English army. 1 English writers give us to 

1 The Norse story is too picturesque to be lost ; and there may be 
genuine details in it. It runs thus. The Norwegian king rode into 
York to hold his court, Earl Tostig with him. As they went, they saw 
a cloud of dust, from under which soon appeared the glittering spears 
of the English host. Tostig is for falling back on their ships (which 
were, it must be remembered, far away on the other side of York) ; but 
the King will face the foe. He sends a messenger to the ships, and 



SLAUGHTER OF THE NORTHMEN. 



359 



understand that the Norwegians were found unpre- 
pared in their camp, which seems to have occupied 
both sides of the Derwent. It was, of course, the 
division that occupied the right bank on which Harold 
and his advance first fell. The confusion was terrible ; 
the Northmen were driven across the stream, which 
was so choked with corpses that the living passed over 
on the bodies of the dead. The bridge that spanned 
the river was held by a single champion, who, for a 
time, kept the whole English army at bay, and was 
not dislodged till an Englishman crept under the 
timbers, and pierced him from below. Meanwhile 
Hardrada had had time to form his host in battle 
array. Then came the final struggle. Of its details 
we know nothing, though we may imagine much. 
Doubtless it was not much unlike the great fight 

marshals his army for battle, making a great circle with the banner of 
his house in the midst. As he rides round the wall of shields his 
horse stumbles. He falls to the ground. To his own men he makes 
light of the omen ; but to the English king, interpreting it by contraries, 
it augurs well. " Who is that, the tall man who fell from his horse ?" 
he asks of his followers. And when he hears that it is the Norwegian 
king, "A goodly man," he answers, "but his fall is approaching." 
Then comes the attempt to make terms of peace. The two Harolds 
and Tostig meet. "What will you give me?" asks the banished earl 
of his brother the king. " Your earldom ; nay more, even a third of my 
kingdom." " And what shall the king of Norway have?" "Seven 
feet of earth for a grave, or so much more as he is taller than other 
men." Tostig turns away, for he cannot desert his ally. When 
Harold Hardrada learns that it is the English king with whom they had 
been talking, he blames Tostig for letting him depart unha med. Then 
comes the battle. The wall of shields is unbroken till it breaks itself to 
pursue the beaten foe. In the confusion King Harold falls, pierced in 
the throat by an arrow. Then Tostig takes up the fight till he also is 
smitten. Finally, the men from the ships come up, and the battle begins 
again more fiercely than ever. At nightfall, after a desperate conflict, 
the English have won a great victory. 



360 THE ACCESSION OF HAROLD. 

which I shall attempt to describe in the following 
chapter. There was the ring, hedged about with the 
wall of shields, and the assailants plying upon it 
sword and battle-axe. Only the parts are changed. 
At Stamford Bridge the English attack, at Senlac 
they stand on their defence. They lose the later, as 
they win the earlier fight. 

What is certain is that the Norwegian host was 
utterly broken. "Three kings were slain," says the 
Chronicler, meaning Harold, Tostig, and an Irish 
prince who had joined their alliance, in the hope of 
getting some share of English plunder. As for their 
followers, few seem to have left the field of Stamford 
Bridge alive. But those who had been left with the 
fleet fared better. Harold offered them peace. They 
came to York, gave him hostages, and swore a great 
oath that they would keep the peace with England 
thereafter. Then they sailed away, carrying with 
them, according to one account, the body of Harold 
Hardrada for burial in his native land. 

The English king had much to do in settling the 
affairs of the North, and he had also to give his army 
some rest. He was still at York when a swift mes- 
senger brought the news that William of Normandy 
had landed on the southern coast. He heard the 
tidings, not as he sat at the banquet on the evening of 
the day of Stamford Bridge, but, as we may guess, 
about seven days after. He turned at once to meet 
this new and more dangerous foe. 1 

1 The battle of Stamford Bridge was fought on September 25th. 
William landed on September 28th. The fleetest messenger could 
hardly have traveised the two hundred miles that lie between the south 
coast and York in less than four days. 



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XXXIIL 



THE LAST STRUGGLE. 



My story must now go back to the early days of 
the year 1066. It was not long before William heard 
the news of Edward's death and Harold's accession. 
The tidings came to him as he was setting out for a 
day's hunting. He turned back at once on hearing 
them, but said nothing, nor did any man dare to speak 
to him. Then he went to his palace at Rouen, and 
sat deep in thought, with his face covered. He must 
have been long expecting such news. Edward's life 
he knew to be precarious, and he could not have 
doubted what Harold's hopes had been. But such 
things, whether expected or not, must always be a 
surprise ; and he had to make up his mind at once. 
For years his thoughts had been bent on possessing 
himself of the crown of England ; and now the time 
was come for putting them. Whatever his confidence, 
he could not take such news lightly. 

The first step was, of course, to send an embassy to 
Harold with a formal claim of the crown. We do not 
know the precise terms of the message, but we can 
easily imagine them. William must have called upon 
Harold to fulfil the promises which he had made, or, 



362 



THE LAST STRUGGLE. 



at least, some of them. By rights he ought to yield 
up the kingdom. Failing to do that, let him at least 
marry the duke's daughter, to whom he had been 
contracted in time past, and give his own sister in 
marriage to a Norman noble. Harold's answer is 
variously reported, but here, too, we may supply it for 
ourselves. The kingdom was not his to surrender ; it 
had been given to him by the English people. That 




HAWKING. 

(From the Bayeaux Tapestry.) 

people, too, would have something to say about his 
marriage. Their pleasure was that an English king 
should take an English wife. As for his sister, she 
was dead. 

William did not expect to have any other answer. 
His demands had been made as a matter of form, and 
with the object of putting his adversary in the wrong. 
This done, he set about preparing for the great enter- 
prise of the conquest of England. The first thing 



the pope William's ally. 363 

was to obtain the assent of his barons. Here he had 
much to help him, though there were difficulties to 
overcome. The thirty years that had passed since he 
had succeeded — a child of seven — to his father's 
dukedom had impressed the Normans with a strong 
sense of his extraordinary ability and courage. If 
there was any leader under whom they would venture 
to undertake so perilous an enterprise as the conquest 
of England, it was their Duke William. But perilous 
it was, more perilous than any that had been at- 
tempted within the memory of man. Then, on the 
other hand, if the peril was great, great also would 
be the rewards. On the whole, therefore, there was 
much division of feeling. When William held an 
assembly of his nobles he could not get indeed a 
general assent to his plan, but he got many promises 
of support. The barons, though they were not 
bound to serve beyond the sea, would follow his 
banner, and would even bring with them twice the 
numbers which they could legally be called upon to 
furnish. 

Then he looked for help outside the borders of his 
own duchy, looked for help both moral and material. 
He had some success in obtaining both. Philip of 
France would not help him, nor would Baldwin of 
Flanders. But Eustace of Boulogne was glad to pay 
off an old grudge against Harold, besides the getting 
a share in that English plunder of which he had 
before been permitted to get only the merest taste. 
A more important ally was the Pope. An embassy 
to Rome laid before Alexander III., who was the 
reigning pontiff of the time, his claims and his wrongs. 




h 






2 « 



53 1 



$ 



EMBARKMENT OF THE NORMANS. 365 

Alexander sent his blessing and a consecrated banner, 
which must have been a promise of victory to the 
Normans, a people strongly impressed with a sense of 
religion, though not, it would seem, much influenced 
by it in the conduct of life. 

As for men there was no want of them. Volunteers 
thronged in even from the territories of princes who 
gave no public favour to the enterprise — from Brittany, 
where a war with the English would be popular ; from 
Flanders, the native country of the Duchess Matilda ; 
from France; and even, it is said, from those parts of 
Southern Europe in which a Norman population had 
settled. 

The ships which were to carry over this multitude 
of men were given by the Norman nobles and bishops. 
The number of them, as well as the number of the 
host, has been variously reckoned. If we reckon the 
latter as something between fifty and sixty thousand 
men, we may be sure that there must have been a 
mighty fleet to carry them, not the three thousand 
perhaps, of one account, but certainly more than the 
five hundred and ninety-six of another. 1 

The vast armament thus gathered together had its 
rendezvous a few miles to the west of Havre, not far 
from what is now the well-known watering-place of 
Trouville. It assembled about the middle of August. 
There it lay for a month, waiting in vain for the south 
wind that was to carry it safely to the opposite shore. 
Meanwhile the mixed multitude was kept under the 

1 The combined force of French and English landed in the Crimea 
in the autumn of 1854 required more than a thousand ships for its 
transport. It numbered about fifty thousand men. 



366 THE LAST STRUGGLE. 

strictest discipline. William set his face sternly 
against all plundering. That was to be reserved for 
the land to which they were going. 

About the middle of September the duke changed 
his position some seventy miles eastward to the mouth 
of the Somme, a position in which he was much 
nearer to the English coast. This delay must have 
weakened his force, but it had more than compensation 
in the damage which it did to the resources of Harold. 
The English king had gathered a vast levy of men, 
and collected a powerful fleet for the protection of the 
coast. But he could not keep them together. His 
soldiers were not mercenaries supported by pay, and 
ready to endure no little privation in the hope of 
future plunder. They were a levy of native English- 
men, who had their harvests to gather in. Harold, in 
consequence, could not keep his men together many 
days after the beginning of September. He had to 
disband his army, while his fleet returned to London, 
not without suffering loss on their way. If the south 
wind which William had waited for so impatiently 
had come sooner, before Harold's army was broken 
up, and before the Norwegian king, with the traitor 
Tostig, had made their fatal diversion in the north, 
it might have carried him not to victory, but to 
defeat. 

For fourteen or fifteen days William was compelled 
to tarry in his new quarters. Then on the 27th of 
September the long-wished for south wind began to 
blow. The great host embarked in hot haste, the 
duke himself urging them to do their work with all 
the speed they might. It was dark before the start 



WILLIAM ON ENGLISH SOIL. 367 

was made. Every ship bore a light, and the duke's 
own vessel, the gift of his wife, Matilda, was marked 
out from the rest as that which all were to follow by 
the huge lantern that it bore. Nothing hindered the 
passage. The wind blew softly and steadily from the 
same quarter, and William, like Caesar eleven hundred 
years before, crossed the strait which has more than 
once baffled invaders, without suffering any loss. At 
nine o'clock in the morning of September 28th he 
landed on the English coast. The place was then 
known as Andredes-ceaster, the Anderida of Roman 
times. It now bears the name of Pevensey. Its 
character has changed as has its name. The shallow 
water of the sea would now offer a serious obstacle to 
the landing of an army. In those days the sea 
covered ground which is now one of the richest 
pastures of England, and could bear ships of no small 
burden up to the walls of the old Roman town. 
William probably expected resistance, but he found 
none. There was neither army nor fleet to hinder his 
landing, and he took undisturbed possession of his 
future inheritance. One incident that seemed at first 
to angur ill for his success troubled the minds of his 
followers. He was the first man to disembark, and 
as he stepped from his ship, he fell. A groan of 
dismay went up from all who saw it. " By the 
splendour of God " — this was the duke's favourite 
oath — " I have taken seizin of my kingdom, for the 
earth of England is in my hands." 

But England was not long left without defenders. 
Harold, we have seen, had heard the news of the 
landing of the Normans about the 1st of October. 



HAROLD RAISES LEVIES IN LONDON. 369 

He hurried to London, probably taking his house- 
carles with him, but leaving the rest of his followers to 
follow as soon as they could. The defence of the 
South would have to be furnished in the main from 
the South itself, and London was its capital. We 
know, as a matter of fact, that the northern earldoms 
furnished none of the troops who did battle for their 
country at Senlac. We may suppose, then, he 
reached London in about the time which it had taken 
the messengers to travel from Pevensey to York. As 
he travelled he sent summonses to such of the shires 
as would be able and willing to send men to his levy. 
But London itself must have been the centre of his 
preparations for defence, and in London, according to 
one writer, " during six days he drew together an 
innumerable number of Englishmen." This would 
bring us to October nth or 12th. 

It was during this sojourn in London that, if indeed 
the story is true, Gurth prepared his plan for carrying 
on the campaign. This was that he and Leofwine 
should go and do battle with the Norman invaders. 
He was bound, he said, by no oaths to William, and 
could fight against him with a clear conscience. 
Harold should keep himself in reserve and collect 
fresh troops to resist the invaders should fortune go 
against him in the first battle. While its king 
remained unconquered, England could not be lost. 
Meanwhile he must lay waste the country between 
the coast and London, so as to leave the invaders no 
means of subsistence. Harold would have nothing 
to do with any such scheme. He would stand in the 
front, as it was his duty to stand, to defend his 



370 THE LAST STRUGGLE. 

country. Of the scruples about his oath he took no 
account. He would not lay waste the lands of 
Englishmen. We cannot doubt that in making this 
resolve he was right. 

His hasty preparations completed, he left London, 
and on the 13th of October reached the position, 
doubtless decided on beforehand, where he had 
determined to await the approach of the Normans. 
This was the hill of Senlac, now known as Battle, 
one of the range of heights which rise about six 
miles to the north of Hastings, which place William 
had occupied after his landing at Pevensey. The 
night before the battle was spent, so the story runs 
(and it is told, we must remember, by writers in the 
Norman interest), by the Normans in prayer and 
devotion, by the English in noisy feasting. 

On a height above the town of Hastings, from 
which the English encampment on Senlac hill was 
visible, William addressed his army, exhorted them 
to do their duty as men, and assured them of victory. 
Then he armed himself, turning the curious mis- 
chance by which his coat of mail was put on hind- 
foremost into an omen of success. It portended, 
he said, that the duke should be turned into a 
king. 

The left wing of the army was composed of men 
from Brittany and Poitou ; the left of the French 
mercenaries and auxiliaries. In the centre was 
William himself with his Normans. Some heavy 
armed infantry he had ; but the force in which he 
chiefly trusted was his cavalry, the valiant Norman 
knights, ranged, we are told, in five divisions. In the 



HAROLD'S POSITION AT SENLAC. 37 1 

front line was carried the Papal banner, pledge, it 
was believed, of certain victory. Before each division 
went the archers. It was their duty, after discharging 
their arrows, to retire on the infantry behind them. 
They had neither armour nor arms to fit them for 
close combat. 

Harold, on the other hand, had spared no pains to 
fortify his post at Senlac hill. He guarded each 
approach with a triple palisade, in which there were 
three strongly-guarded openings. In the centre was 
the Royal Standard. By this the King and his 
brothers, Gurth and Leofwine, took their post, having 
round them the house-carles, the strength of the 
English army. The right and left of the array were 
occupied by the light-armed troops, hasty levies for 
the most part, and some of them very irregularly 
armed. The King himself and his followers had the 
battle-axe for their weapon. 

At nine o'clock in the morning the battle was 
begun by the archers. They discharged their arrows, 
we are not told with what effect, and then retired. 
Then the whole army advanced to the attack. But 
before they closed a Norman minstrel, skilled for 
sleight of hand as well as for skill in song, rode forth 
in front of the array. He sang the song of Charle- 
magne and Roland, and of them who died fighting 
against the pagan foes at Roncesvalles, and as he 
sang he threw his sword into the air and caught it 
again. With reckless valour he rode up, it seems, to 
the very line of the English defence, struck down one 
man with his lance, and another with his sword, and 
then v/as in his turn struck dead upon the ground. 



372 THE LAST STRUGGLE. 

The heavy infantry began the serious attack. They 
had toiled through the marshy ground between the 
hills, and up the slope, on the top of which the 
English were posted. But when they came to the 
palisade, behind which stood the close array of 
English warriors, they could do nothing. All their 
valour could not win a way through it. Then William 
called his Norman horsemen, the flower of his nation, 
to the attack. They charged again and again, but 
even they could make no impression on the foe. 
The English had the advantage of the ground, 
and man for man they were superior in stature and 
strength. 

All might have been well, but for that want of 
discipline which is the fatal fault of such hasty levies, 
and which so often makes success the beginning of 
disaster. The Breton troops of William turned and 
fled, and the English on the right charged forth from 
their defences, and pursued them. For a time all 
was panic and confusion in the Norman army ; the 
Norman knights themselves were borne back by the 
tide of fugitives. Then came the time for William's 
indomitable courage and constancy to show itself. 
With bare head he rode among the fugitives and 
rallied them to the attack. The Bretons turned, and, 
aided doubtless by the Norman cavalry, slaughtered 
their pursuers. 

Then came the Conqueror's great effort. He rode 
up himself to the place where the Royal Standard 
stood, his brothers, Odo of Bayeaux, most valiant of 
Churchmen, and Robert, with him. His purpose was 
to come face to face with Harold himself ; but before 



William's strategy. 373 

he could reach him, Gurth had aimed a spear which 
struck, not indeed the duke himself, but his horse. 
This did not stop him, he pressed on to the barricade, 
and with a mighty blow of his mace, almost as famous 
a weapon as Rustem's club, or Achilles' spear, he 
struck the English earl to the ground. Another 
blow from one of his Norman followers was fatal to 
Leofwine. 

The death of the two brothers was a terrible loss 
to the English army; yet it stood firm. Here and 
there the assailants had succeeded in breaking down 
the palisade ; but the array of warriors behind it 
still stood solid and firm. Then William had re- 
course to stratagem. He had seen how the flight of 
the Bretons had tempted the English forth from their 
defences, and he put the lesson into practice. The 
army was ordered to fall back. Again the undiscip- 
lined levies rushed forth to the pursuit ; and again 
they were made to feel the fatal consequences of their 
rashness and disobedience, and, what was worse, the 
palisade was left undefended. This captured, the 
task of the English in holding their ground was made 
much harder. Still they held it. No shocks from 
the assailants could move the dense array in which 
Harold and his men stood close together, so close 
that even the dead could not fall to the ground, but 
remained upright among the living. Gallant deeds 
were done on both sides, and none bore themselves 
more bravely than the rival leaders. Never was a 
battle more like the great Homeric fight, when the 
chiefs turn by the prowess of their own hands the 
fortune of the day. But the end came at last, not 



374 THE LAST STRUGGLE, 

indeed till the sun was near the setting. William 
bade his archers x shoot a volley into the air. The 
descending arrows fell with fatal effect upon the 
English host, for one of them pierced Harold's eye 
as he stood in his place. He fell in his death struggle 
at the foot of the Royal Standard. Twenty Norman 
knights rushed to secure it ; four hastened to de- 
spatch the still breathing king. 

The battle was now virtually over, yet the English 
still resisted. The irregular levies fled from the 
ground, but not in such terror but that they could 
turn, when the occasion presented itself, and inflict a 
terrible loss upon their pursuers. But the King's own 
guard, the house-carles, fell where they stood, not a 
man leaving his place, not a man asking quarter. 
And with them fell many gallant Englishmen, who 
had come as volunteers to that fatal field Few of 
their names have been preserved. There was no 
" sacred bard " of their own race to preserve their 
fame. But whether laymen or Churchmen — for not 
a few tonsured corpses were found among the slain 
- — they were worthy of their king. 

The body of Harold, recognized by the woman 
whom he had loved in his youth and from whom he 
had been separated by reasons of State, was buried 
on the sea-shore, and afterwards, there is reason to 
believe, removed to the Abbey which he had founded 
at Waltham. 



1 We hear nothing of archers on the English side, famous as were 
these troops in oui armies in after-days. 



FINIS. 



375 



Thus ends the story of Early England. I leave to 
others to tell how the Norman used his conquest, and 
how, whether he wished it so or no, England re- 



mained England still. 




FOUNDATION OF THE CHOIR OF BATTLE ABBEY AND SITE OF 
THE HTGH ALTAR. 

(Being- the spot upon which Harold's Standard zvas planted.) 



INDEX 



A 

Adrian I., Pope, 148 

Aetius, 88 

Agricola, campaigns in Britain, 

57-65 
Agrippina, wife of Claudius, 43 
Aidan, St., 120, 136 
Albinus, Clodius, 76 ; death of, 

77 

Alcuin, 145, 146 

Alfgar (Aelfgar), 337 

Alfred (King), his birth, 199 ; 
visit to Rome, 200 ; struggle 
with the Danes, 205-14 ; as a 
ruler, 215-21 ; his learning, 
220-3 5 character, 224 

Alfred (Atheling), 313, 314, 318, 

334 
Allectus, 84-5 
Alphage (Archbishop), death of, 

284-5 
Ambrosianus Aurelius, 96 
Amund, Danish king, 203 
Angles, 95, 101-3, 117 
Anlaf, 233 
Antoninus, Pius, 74 
Aquitani, 2 
Arleva (Herletta), mother of 

William the Conqueror, 344 
Arthur (King), 100 
Arviragus, 67 
Asclepiodotus, 84 
Ashdown (Ashdune), 140; defeat 

of the Danes by Ethelred, 194-5 
Aslingdon, battle of, 293-4 
Assandune, Canute's church at, 

298 
Asher, biographer of Alfred, 198 



Athelstan (King), birth of, 229 ; 
character, 231 ; supremacy, 233; 
defeats the Danes at Brunan- 
burgh, 234-5 ; foreign alliance, 
237 ; death, 238 

Athelstan (Sub-King of Kent), 188 

Aylesford, battle of, 95 

Augustine ( Archbishop of Canter- 
bury) sent to England, 121 ; 
lands in Thanet, 122 ; converts 
Ethelbert, 123 ; quarrel with 
the British Churches, 123-4 

Augustus (Emperor of Rome), 31, 
32 note 

Aurelian, 80 

Aurelius, M., 76 

B 

Babred, King of Kent, 182 

Badbury, 225 

Badon Hill, battle of, 100 

Baldwin of Flanders, 313, 315, 
324, 325, 343, 363 

Bangor, monks of, 123-4 note 

Batavian cavalry, 35, 60 

Bede (Baeda), the Venerable, 
157-60; quoted, 102; his ac- 
count of Caedmon, 154 

Bedwin, battle of, 141 

Belisarius, 88 

Benedict (Anti-pope), 336 

Benedict (Bishop), Abbot of Wear- 
mouth and Jarrow, 157 

Benson (Bensington), battle of, 
144 

Beorn, 324-5 

Beornwulf (King of Mercia), 182-3 

Beornred, 144 



378 



INDEX. 



Bericus (? Veric), 34 
Bernicia, kingdom of, 103 
Bertha, wife of Ethelbert of Kent, 

116 , 

Bignor, Roman remains at, 91 
Buadicea (Boudicea), 50-5 
Boisil, Prior of Melrose, 163 
Bolanus, Vettius, 56 
Boroughs, the Five, 240, 286 
Bradon, district of, 226 
Brehtric, King of West Saxons, 

148 
Bretwalda, meaning of word, 112- 

114 
Brice, St., massacre on the day 

of, 273-4 
Brigantes, 40, 57 
Brithnoth, Alderman of Eait 

Anglia, in command at Mai 

don, 262-3 
Britric, brother of Edric, 279 
Brunanburgh, battle of, 233-6 
Brutus, legend of, 92 
Buhred, sub-king of Mercia, 203 
Burford, battle of, 143 



Cadwalla, 134-5 
Caedmon, account of, 15 1-7 
Csesar, Julius, 13-30 ; lands in 
Britain, 13 ; his first expedition 
to Britain, 13-21 ; second ex- 
pedition, 22-30 
Calgacus the Caledonian, 64 
Caligula, pretended conquests of, 

33 

Camalodunum, 36, 40, 50, 51 

Camden, the historian, quoted, 70 

Cangi, 40 

Canterbury, 123, 148, 282-4 

Canute, named king, 287 ; 
crowned, 290 ; struggle with 
Edmund Ironsides, 290-4 ; his 
reign and character, 295-310 

Caracalla, 78 

Caradoc (Caractacus), 35-42 

Carausius, 82-5 

Cartismandua, 42 

Cassiterides, the, or Tin Islands, 7 

Caswallon (Cassivelaunus), 27-9 



Catena, Paullus, 86 

Ceawlin, King of West Saxons, 

179 
Cenwalh, King of West Saxons, 

179 ; driven out by Penda, 140 
Cenwulf, King of Mercia, 149 
Ceolred, 141 

Ceolvvulf, of Wessex, 117 
Ceonred, 141 
Ceorl, Alderman of Devonshire, 

189 
Cerdic, King of West Saxons, 98- 

101 
Cerialis, Petilius, 51-7 
Charford, battle of, 100 
Charles the Great (Charlemagne), 

145, 146, 180 ; Charles and the 

Danes, 187 
Charles the Simple, 227, 321 note 
Chedworth, remains at, 243 
Chesterford, battle of, 243 
Cimbric peninsula, 102 
Cissa, 97-8 
Clapa, 319 
Claudia, 45 note 
Claudius, Emperor of Rome, 32 ; 

campaign in Britain, 36 ; par- 
dons Caractacus, 45 
Cogidumnus, 38, 45 note 
Coifi, 126-7 
Commius, 13, 17 
Commodus, 76 
Constantine the Great, 85 
Constantine, usurper of Britain, 88 
Constantine, sub-king of Scots, 

2 33 

Constantius L, 83, 85 

Constantius II., 86 

Corfe Castle, 258 

Cornwall, tin mines of, 7 

Crayford, 95 

Croyland, 149, 191-3 (but see 
Preface) 

Crida, King of Mercia, 133 

Cuckamley Hill, 277 

Cumbria, kingdom of, 107 ; con- 
quered by Egferth, 138 

Cunobelin (Cymbeline), 33-4 

Cuthbert, 16 1-6 ; wanderings of 
his remains, 266 

Cuthred of Wessex, 143 



INDEX. 



379 



Cymen, 97 
Cynegils, 129 
Cynewulf, 180 
Cynric, 98-9, 104 

D 

Danegelt, 297, 317 ; repealed, 
328 

Danes, first mentioned, 80 ; ap- 
peared in England, 186 

Deal, Csesar's landing at, 14-17 

Deorham (Dereham), battle of, 
104 

Dio Cassius, historian, quoted, 33, 

36, 37, 38, 53 
Diocletian, Emperor of Rome, 82 
Domitian, Emperor, 65, 67 
Dover, 14, 329 
Druids, 7-10, 48 
Duncan, 315 
Dunstan, aims and policy of, 245-6 ; 

his career, 247 et seq. ; his death, 

261 

E 

Eadburga, 148 

Ealcher, defeats the Danes at sea, 
189 

Ealdred, bishop of Worcester, 328 

Ealstan, bishop, 182 

Ealswith, daughter of Alfred, 226 ; 
dies, 228 

Ealswith, wife of King Alfred, 202 

Eanfrid, 134 

Ebbsfleet, 94, 122 

Earpwarld, King of East Anglia, 
127 

Eata, Abbot of Melrose, 163 

Eboracum (York), 78, 103 

Edgar the Peaceable, 251 ; his 
fleet, 253 ; his reforms, 255 ; 
his death, 256 

Edhild, 236 

Edith, wife of Edward the Con- 
fessor, 324 seq. 

Edmund, Ironsides, son of Ethel 
red the Unready, fights with 
Canute, 289 ; crowned at Lon- 
don, 290 ; his campaigns, 290- 
94 ; dies, 294 



Edmund, son of Edward the Elder, 

239-40 ; death of, 241 
Edmund, Sub- King of East Anglia, 

193 
Edred, 241-4 
Edric, 289, 290, 293 seq. 
Edward the Confessor, his reign, 

320-54 
Edward the Elder, his reign, 210- 

229 
Edward the Martyr, 256-8 
Edwin of Deira, 132-3 
Egbert, Archbishop of York, 158 
Egbert, King of Wessex, flies to 

Off a of Mercia, 180 ; his reign, 

182-4 
Egferth of Mercia, 149 
Egferth of Northumbria, 1 38-9 
Eglesford, battle of, 293 
Egwin, mother of Athelstan, 229 
Elfleda, 148 
Elfric, 264 
Elfrida, 258 

Elgiva, first wife of Ethelred, 272 
Ella, Chief of West Saxons, 97-8 ; 

first Bretwalda, 114 
Ella (of Northumbria), 124 
Ellandun, battle of, 182 
Ely, 195 

Emma of Normandy, 272 seq. 
Englefield, battle of, 194 
English institutions, &c, of 

people, 167-72 
Essex, kingdom of, 101 ; conver- 
sion of, 124 
Estrith, 306 

Ethelbald of Mercia, 142-3 
Ethelbald, son of King Ethelwulf, 

107 
Ethelbert, first Christian king, 123 

seq. ; war with Ceawlin, 115; 

Bretwalda, 117; death, 119 
EtheUxrt, of East Anglia, 149 
Ethelburga, 126 
Ethelfled, 227, 228 
Ethelfrith, 119, 124, 126 
Ethelred, of Mercia, 141 
Ethelred, Sub-King of Mercia, 

227 
Ethelred the Unready, his reign 

and character, 260-90 



3 So 



INDEX. 



Ethel wulf, Alderman of Berkshire, 

194 
Ethel wulf, son and successor of 

Egbert, 188, 190, 195 
Eustace, Count of Boulogne, 328-9 
Exeter, 203, 210; betrayed to the 

Danes, 275 



Franks, 80 

Frethern, battle of, 104 ; second 

battle of, 115 
Fulford, battle of, 357 



Galba, Emperor, 66 

Gallienus, Emperor, 79 

Gallus, Didius, 47 

Gerwold, 146 

Gessoriacum (Bononia, Boulogne), 
82 

Girling, 326 

Godgiva, 328 

Godwin, Earl of Wessex, supports 
Hardicanute, 312; connection 
with death of the Atheling 
Alfred, 313-4; his supremacy 
in England, 322-9 ; banished, 
330 ; returns, 331 ; his death, 

344 
Goths, 88 

Gratianus, Emperor of Rome, 87 
Gratianus, Usurper of Britain, 87 
Gregory (Pope). 120 seq. 
Griffith, of Wales, 315 seq. ; killed, 

^338 

Gunhild, 274 

Gurth, son of Godwin, 324 
Guthlac, the hermit, 142 
Guthmund, 262 
Guthrum, 203 
Gytha, wife of Earl Godwin, 324 

II 

Hadrian, Emperor of Rome, 67-9 
Hardicanute, succeeds to crown, 

315; dies, 319 
Harold, Havefoot, succeeds Canute, 

312; death, 315 



Harold, Hardrada, 356 ; defeated 
and slain at Stamford Bridge, 
359-DO 

Harold, son of Godwin, Earl of 
East Anglia, 324 ; fall into 
hands of William of Normandy, 
340; chosen king, 354; his 

rei g n > 355-75 

Hasting, 209, 210 

Hastingas, 144, 146 

Hengist, 92-6 

Herodotus, quoted, 7 

Hexham, battle of, 135; bishopric 
of, 164 

Hilda, Abbess of Whitby, 151-2 

Hingvar, 193 

Honor us, Archl ishop of Canter- 
bury, 128 

Honorius, Emperor of West, 88 

Horsa, 93-6 

House Carles, 302 



Iberians, 2 seq. 
Iceni, 39, 50 
Idwal, 253 
Ina, of Mercia, 179 
Iona, 128 
Ireland, 63 



Jarrow, 157 
Judith, 197 
Justus, 128, 129 
Jutes, 94, 102 
Juvenal, quoted, 67 

K 

Kent, first English kingdom, 96 

L 

Laelianus, 79 

Lapps, the, 2 

Leo IV. (Pope), 200 

Leofwin, son of Godwin, 325 ; 

killed at Senlac, 373 
Lichfield, Archbishopric of, 148 
Lindsey, 103, 189, 191 



INDEX. 



38l 



London, 52, 86, 103, 148, 207, 
227 ; burnt, 266 ; defeats Olaf, 
266 ; 276, 278 

Lothan, 326 

Lucullus, Sallustius, 66 

Lugdunum (Leyden), 76 

Lugdunum (Lyons), 87 



M 

Magnentius, 85 
Magnus of Sweden, 315 
Marcellus, Ulpius, 76 
Marcus, Usurper in Britain, 87 
Marius, Usurper in Gaul, 80 
Massilia (Mar-eilles), 1, 36 
Maximianus, 82, 85 
Maximus, Emperor, 87 
Maximus, Trebellius, 56 
Mellitus, 124, 127 
Melrose, Monastery of, 163 
Mercia, 128 ; rises into power, 

133 ; supremacy of, 141 -9 ; 

decline, 150 
Mercred's-Burnsted (Lye), 98 
Middle Saxons, 101 
Mona (Anglesey), 48, 49, 60 
Morcar, murdered by Edric, 289 

N 

Nero, 47, 55 

Normans, 80 ; settlement in France. 

321 note 
North and South Folk (Norfolk 

and Suffolk), 102 
Northumbria, 139 seq. 



O 

Odo of Bayeaux, 372 

Odo of Canterbury, 249 

Offa, 144-8 

Olaf of Norway, 305 ; killed, 

306 
Olaf of Sweden, 296 
Olaf Tryggvason, 262, 266 
Ordovices, 40, 59 
Osburga, 199 
Oskylet, 203 
Oslac, 199 



Oswald, sixth Bretwalda, 112, 

128 ; defeats Cad walla, 134; 
defeat and death, 136 

Oswin, seventh Bretwalda, 112, 

137 
Oswy, 136-8; his vow, 151 
Otford, battle of, 144 
Oxford, Council of, 297 



Partesbury, battle of, 140 
Paulinus (Bishop), 126 
Paulinus (Suetonius), 47, 55 
Peter's Pence, 197 
Pevensey (Anderida), 97 ; William 

lands at, 367 
Picts and Scots, 86-7 
Pius, Antoninus, 74 
Plautius, Aulus, 34-8 
Porta, 99 

Portus Itius (Issant), 22 
Postumus, Latinius, 79 
Prasutagus, 38, 50 
Pytheas, I 

R 

Radulf, 337 

Ramsgate, 94 

Redwald, fourth Bretwalda, 1 1 2, 

117, 119, 125 
Riccall, 357 

Richard of Normandy, 272, 344 
Ricula, 117 

Ripon, monastery of, 163 
Robert of Normandy, 301 
Rochester, 124, 148, 189 
Rollo of Normandy, 227 
Romans, conquest and occupation 

of the Island, 12-88 
Roman occupation, traces of, 88- 

91 

Roman wall, 68-74 

Rowena, 93 

Rutupiae (Richborough), 87 



Sandwich, battle of, 289 
Saxons, 80, 98 et seq. 
Saxons, East, see Essex 
Saxons, Middle, ioi 



3«2 



INDEX. 



Saxons, South, 98 

Saxons, West, 98-101 

Saxon Shore, Count of, 282 

Scapula, Ostorius, 38, 39 seq. 

Sherburne, 148 

Seckington, battle of, 143 

Senlac (Hastings), battle of, 370-4 

Severus, Septimius, 76-8 

Sherston, battle of, 291 

Sibert, 124 

Sigebert, 127, 135-6 

Sigeric, 264 

Silchester, 72 

Silures, the, 2, 40, 46, 57 

Siward, 323, 335-6 

Sleswick, 102 

Somerton, 142 

Stamford Bridge, battle of, 358 
seq. 

Stephen of Hungary, 296 

Stigand, 298, 334 seq. 

Stilicho, 87 

Stonehenge, 10 

Strathclyde, kingdom of, 107 

Suetonius (Historian), quoted, 31, 
36, 37 

Suetonius, see Panlinns 

Sussex, kingdom, founded, 98 ; 
conversion of, 131 

Sussex, iron fields of, 15 

Sweyn (Svvegen), king of Den- 
mark, 275 ; invades England, 
277 ; returns, 285 ; virtually 
king, 287 ; legend of his death, 
287 

Sweyn (son of Godwin), 324-6 

Swithun, 196 



Tacitus quoted, 2, 13, 39, 43, 51, 

62, 66 
Testudo, the, described, 24 
Tetricus, Caius, Usurper, 80 
Tettenhall, battle of, 227 
Thanet, Isle of, 94 
Theodosius, 86 
Theodosius I., 87 
Thorkill, 285-6 
Thurgar, 193 
Titus (Emperor), yj 
Tofig, 319 



Togidumnus, 35 
Tostig, 335, 342-3, 355-60 
Turpilianus, Petronius, 56 
Twjford, Synod of, 164 

U 
Uffa, 103 
Ulfkytel, 277, 282 
Urbicus, Lollius, 74 

V 

Vaerdalen, battle of, 306 
Valentia, 86 
Valentinian I., 86 
Valentinian II., 87 
Valerian, Emperor, 79 
Val-es-Dunes, battle of, 347 
Veranius, Quintus, 47 
Verulamium, 52 
Vespasian, 35, 37, 56 
Victorinus, 80 
Volusenus, 13 
Vortigern, legend of, 92-3 

W 

Wales (North), 107 

Wales (West), 105 

Wall, see Roman wall 

Wantage, 199 

Wearmouth, 157 

Wednesbury, battle of, 141 

" Welsh," the, 96 

Wends, the, 290 

Wer-gild, 168 

Whitby, 152 

Wight, Isle of, 38, 99, 101, 140 

Wihtgar, 99 

Wilfrid, 129 

William of Malmesbury, 116 

William of Normandy, 344 ; his 

youth, 345-7; marriage, 349; 

invasion of EnglanH, 361-75 
Wimbledon, battle of, 115 
Winchester, 148 
Wippedsfleet, 96 
Witenagemot, 172 
Wlenking, 97 
Worcester, sack of, 317 
Wulfhere, 138, 140, 141 
Wulfnoth, 324 



The Story of the Nations. 



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" The book is a most valuable, instructive, and interesting one, and can 
be placed in the hands of young people with the full confidence that 
while it entertains it will convey no false notions of history or morality." — 
Buffalo News. 

" The story is a fascinating one, its tone is lofty and devout, and its aim 
is to illuminate history in shadowy places." — Christian Advocate ', Syracuse. 

" This book is, in fact, an historical romance, with varied and exciting 
adventures, and presenting a really valuable picture of a little-known 
period. " — Nation. 

" The action of the story is rapid and intensely interesting, and we have 
in the course of it a careful study of those stirring times so full of the spirit 
of conspiracy and ambitious rivalries." — Christian at Work. 

" The story is a very interesting one, and the historical characters intro- 
duced render it also instructive." — Religious Herald, Hartford. 

" The book is pleasamly written, and the interweaving of tact and fiction 
forms an interesting narrative." — Ragle, Grand Rapids. 

"The characters embrace several nationalities, and naturally the whole 
story is full of action and dramatic interest." — Boston Times. 

" It has decided merit as an historical novel, and abounds in interest " — 
Rochester Advertiser. 

" The historical surroundings of the story are true and correct, and its 
interest is great for those who are fond of historical narrative." — Utica 
He?-ald. 

" The style is elegant and forcible, and the story from the opening 
chapter to the pathetic ending is fascinating." — Rutland Herald. 

" This is a novel of the historical type, and is a vivid picture of the 
Roman period in English history." — Minneapolis Tribune. 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS. 

New York : London : 

27 and 29 West 23d Street. 27 King William Street, Strand. 



THE THREE GREEK CHILDREN. A Tale of 
the Peloponnesian War. By Alfred J. Church, M.A. 
Twelve full-page illustrations, printed in colors, pp. 
205 . . . $1 25 

" Prof. Church has an ingenious and admirable way of ' smuggling ' into 
the youthful mind, under the guise of stories, all sorts of information about 
classical times and classical heroes — a way superior to that of the old-fash- 
ioned Charicles of Bekker or the pseudo-classicism of Fenelon." — N. Y. 
Critic. 

" Let the children who are beginning the study of Grecian history be 
given this delightful little book." — N. Y. Evangelist. 

" It is a prettily told tale of the ' home life in old time,' with illustrations 
and historical incidents which rivet the attention, fix the important features 
in the memory, and give to the young reader entertaining and instructive 
reading." — Easton Press. 

" Not only is the story a most interesting bit of fiction, but it incidentally 
gives a great deal of information concerning domestic life in Ancient 
Greece." — Toronto Mail. 

" This is the most delightful book for children that we have seen for 
many a day." — New Orleans Chronicle- Advocate. 

" This is a very attractive story of ancient Greek life, adapted for young 
readers, and is both instructive and interesting." — San Jose Mercury. 

" It describes, in narrative form, the home life of the Greeks, and is just 
the kind of book to put into the hands of an intelligent boy who is begin- 
ning his ancient history." — Chicago Journal. 

"Altogether it is a very instructive and interesting book, not only for 
children, but older people as well." — Poughkeepsie Times. 

" The story throughout is as entertaining as it is instructive." — Aransas 
City Journal. 

" The book is interesting, and can be cordially recommended to the 
younger students of Grecian history." — Boston 7tmes. 

" The book is one that parents will be glad to place in the hands of their 
boys or girls who are taking up the study of Grecian history. " — Albany Argus. 

"The best possible preparation for classical studies and attainments 
would be the early reading of such books as this." — Woman's Jotcrnal. 

" The book is written in that cosy, familiar style which always interests 
young people." — Toledo Blade. 

" It is interesting, while the mythological tales and historical studies in- 
troduced give a charm to the book." — Religious Herald. 

"Such books as this are the best sort of juvenile literature, and very 
agreeable to adult readers as well." — Buffalo Express. 



2508 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS. 

New York : London : 

27 and 29 West 23d Street. 27 King William Street, Strand. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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